Understanding and Negotiating Contracts With Venues

Signing the venue hire contract is a significant stage in the event planning process as it formalises the agreement with the principal supplier to the event. Venue contracts can be quite lengthy and detailed documents as they cover all aspects of the agreement between the two parties. As well as confirming the hire charges, it will stipulate a number of rules and regulations that will govern the event, and it will outline the penalties for failing to comply with the contract. Much of this is rooted in the venue's plan to ensure that the event complies with relevant legislation and health and safety guidance. This chapter covers the purpose of a venue contract, typical terms and conditions, likely penalties for breaching the contract, plus an overview of venue specific laws and health and safety guidance.

Multi-principal collaboration and supplier’s compliance with codes-of-conduct

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to articulate propositions on how collaborating multi-national corporations (MNCs) can manage their supplier base in order to reduce the risk of suppliers’ non-compliance with shared codes-of-conduct. Design/methodology/approach The study utilises a conceptual theory development approach. In doing so, it utilises key tenets of agency theory that are applied in a multi-principal–supplier relationship context and synthesised in a series of propositions. Findings The study shows that MNCs have a variety of mechanisms for reducing the risk of suppliers’ non-compliance by decreasing information asymmetry, increasing their bargaining power and simultaneously use of both rewards/sanctions, and reputation-based safeguards. Research limitations/implications This is a conceptual theory development study, offering testable propositions, which have then to be empirically validated. Practical implications The study showcases that managers of MNCs who find themselves in relationships with non-compliant suppliers have at their disposal a variety of mechanisms to reduce the risk of suppliers’ non-compliance. Originality/value This is one of the first studies that explore suppliers’ non-compliance with codes-of-conduct at the level of a relationship, rather than a single firm. In this way it proposes a theoretical framework grounded in agency theory on managing relationships between multi-principal collaborators and their suppliers.

The Mills of Liberty: Foreign Capital, Government Contracts, and the Establishment of DuPont, 1790–1820

E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. is one of the world’s largest chemical corporations, and its operations are of interest to business historians. This article explores the early history of the firm within the context of early republic political economy in order to show how it came to a place of prominence in the American gunpowder market by the early 1820s. The article utilizes the archival and printed records of DuPont, associated firms, government correspondence, and early War Department and trade statistics to show how the company, unlike other powder mills of that time, had access to both large reserves of foreign capitalandthe halls of power in the federal government. These resources helped DuPont become a principal supplier of gunpowder to the army, the navy, and a major exporter during the War of 1812 era.

An approach to address principal supplier development impediments

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assist a manufacturer for determining the principal supplier development impediments (SDIs) that are affecting the supplier development programs (SDPs) and yield a basis for drawing the appropriate mitigation strategies. Design/methodology/approach The proposed approach starts with the application of fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and Pareto analysis to obtain the principal SDIs. Subsequently, the interpretive structural modeling and Fuzzy-Matrice d’Impacts Croisés-Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement analysis are applied on the principal SDIs to explore the root causes inducing ineffectiveness in the SDPs. Findings The outcomes of the proposed approach were demonstrated through a case study conducted in an Indian automotive components manufacturing company. The principal SDIs were identified, ranked, classified and structurally related for the said case company’s manufacturing environment. It was found that the lack of competent workforce, level of nascent relationship between manufacturer and suppliers and poor devolution of authority were the main SDIs that the case company has to primarily focus to make its SDPs effective. Research limitations/implications Although the study was conducted in a practical case situation, the obtained results are not indiscriminate to the other case situations. However, the proposed approach can be applied for analyzing the SDIs in any manufacturing environment once the set of SDIs relevant to that environment are carefully chosen. Practical implications The methodology would assist a manufacturer to proactively identify the SDIs that it has to primarily focus and subsequently devise the mitigation strategies for smooth running of its SDPs. Originality/value By utilizing the identified SDIs and applying the proposed methodology a manufacturer can find the main SDIs that are making the SDPs ineffective and accordingly fix the hindrances through certain mitigation strategies designed.

Rise of American Growth in Brazil: Decade of the 1870's

The erosion of Great Britain's economic and political foothold in Brazil reached critical proportions during the 1870's, at which time England sustained dual commercial assaults by German and American interest groups. In his study of British Preëminence in Brazil, Alan K. Manchester says that the first rival to seriously threaten Britain's role in Brazil was Germany and he goes on to cite examples of this threat during 1873. While Manchester alludes to the United States as another economic rival of Great Britain during the nineteenth century, he suggests that the United States figured only as a minor competitor until World War I, when it would supplant Great Britain as the principal supplier of the South American nation. A closer examination of the sources, however, indicates that the United States was anything but a minor competitor and actually a very real threat to Great Britain during the 1870's. The study undertaken by Richard Graham discloses that the British investment in Brazil slowed down during the years 1873-1879. During this period the United States took advantage of the opportunity to increase its economic role and its political prestige in Brazil at the expense of the British.