This paper examines the development of Internet-based, virtual business forums and their potential for overcoming some of the difficulties faced by business owners in rural areas. Rural environments provide challenges for business owners due to limited local markets and limited access to resources. The paper examines the success of collective action by business owners in rural environments in Scotland to establish Internet-based business forums that seek to meet such challenges. Using case study methodology, the paper finds variable experiences and proposes a model of the process of collective action.

There has been limited systematic or comprehensive research on the use and impact of ICTs on rural small and medium size firms (SMEs), yet the use and take-up of ICTs has been highlighted as an important strategic factor in the development of both rural firms and rural communities by a number of studies. Indeed, several empirical studies have found that rates of ICT adoption in SMEs lag behind those in larger businesses. This investigates the extent to which this can be seen to be the case in rural Scotland, and investigates the use of ICTs in rural firms. ᭹ A review of the literature is undertaken and relevant recent policy developments considered. Quantitative data is used to determine the rate and extent of ICT take-up in rural SMEs. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, attempts are made to examine a novel support mechanism -the Internet forum -based on rural locality or rural locality-specific industry. ᭹ Contrary to previous literature, the survey evidence suggests that ICT use in business is high by small firms in rural areas, including utilizing on-line sources for markets and suppliers. Internet forums appear to be significant for utilizing ICT-related technologies for business growth, especially for increasing sales and accessing international markets.Internet forums may also have encouraged relatively high use of public sector sources of advice and support. ᭹ Qualitative findings show that Internet business forums exist due to complicated reasons that are more related to local and individual human factors rather than market forces.That is, they have often arisen where local communities or local individuals have been able to raise funding, or where they have been the target of public sector initiatives and funding. ᭹ This paper supports the view that the establishment of Internet-based business forums can have beneficial advantages for local rural firms. However, it is recognized that where such forums exist it is likely that it is the more growth-orientated firms that will join them and that strategies for sustainability of forums, while desirable, were not observed.

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The economics of religion lays aside transcendent claims of the church to study it as a social organization that uses scarce resources to achieve its ends. In contrast to the secularization models deployed by some sociologists of religion, economic models of religion tend to suggest that free markets for religious services will encourage continual entry of new organisations, steadily enriching religion. There is, however, no unified economic model of religion. In this chapter, we consider the role of models that treats strictness in religious practice as a screening device that has the effect of reducing free riding where religious goods are collectively produced, the role of voluntary contributions as the main financing mechanism of churches, a characterisation of a denominational church as a franchise organisation, and the possibility that officials of monopoly churches might engage in rent seeking behaviour at the expense of church members.

This empirical study addresses whether the gender of a minister has any effect on remuneration in the Church of Scotland in 2004. The data set merges three cross‐sectional sources, namely denominational data, church census information and local geographic (postcode) characteristics. We find that male ministers are more likely to be matched to affluent churches permitted to pay a voluntary stipend premium all else equal. Moreover, conditional on eligibility, there is evidence that male clergy are more likely to receive this bonus. The data are unable to discriminate between demand and supply side explanations of these findings.