The refinancing of PFI (Private Finance Initiative) projects represents one of the most contentious aspects of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the UK. The negative publicity associated with UK PFI refinancing deals is associated with several factors, including, evidence of massive private...

Recent business history has been much concerned with the relationship between organization structure and competitive advantage. Using an archetypal case, the decline of the export-led British cotton industry, the contention that the vertically integrated, professionally managed firm has been an...

The paper re-analyses the evidence presented by pro and anti-regulation interests during the debates on factory reform. To do so it considers the interrelationship between fixed costs, the rate of profit and the length of the working day. The interrelationship casts new light on the lobbying...

The paper examines an early case of creative accounting, and how, during British industrialization, accounting was enlisted by the manufacturers’ interest to resist demands, led by the ‘Ten hours’ movement, for limiting the working day. In contrast to much of the prior literature, which...

The paper argues that by examining accounting’s technical/objective and relational/social characteristics simultaneously, a deeper understanding can be gained of accounting transition at key stages of economic development. Using the case of Boulton & Watt (B&W), a pioneering firm of the...

type="main" <p>Accounting-based risk management (ABRM) is a theoretically consistent and practical tool for calculating the cost of capital from underlying financial ratios. In this paper, a sample of ABRM-generated discount factors is used to generate risk-adjusted returns, which are compared to...</p>