anisotropic scaling) renders this procedure less reliable than measurements of the resistive transitions (without sheath) at various angles. The data in Fig. 6 can be fitted to the behaviour predicted by the anisotropic scaling approach 35 for perfectly textured materials, with B$_{c2}$ and γ as free parameters (not shown in Fig. 6). However, the obtained parameters do not have any physical meaning, because they change with field and strongly underestimate the real B$_{ρ}$$_{=0}$ ( < B$_{c2}$ ) and γ$_{ρ}$$_{=0}$ ( < γ ). The influence of homogeneous weak texture on the macroscopic currents in MgB$_{2}$ was investigated on the basis of a percolation model for nonlinear transport in heterogeneous media. While any texture leads to an anisotropy of the zero resistivity field, the occur- rence of a macroscopic upper critical field anisotropy (onset of the superconducting tran- sition) indicates a significant degree of texture. Although the calculations were based on the anisotropic scaling approach for the intrinsic properties, the angular dependence of the macroscopic quantities (i.e., critical current, zero resistivity field, and upper critical field) do not obey the predictions of this general scaling in weakly textured materials, even if an effective instead of the intrinsic anisotropy is assumed. It is hardly possible to derive the degree of texture and the intrinsic anisotropy from the field dependence of the critical current, in particular, if the upper critical field is unknown. Angular resolved measurements of the resistive transition turn out to be more appropriate for this purpose, but usually require the removal of the sheath. The most suitable parameter for the quantification of the macroscopic anisotropy is the anisotropy of the zero resistivity field. ∗ Electronic address: eisterer@ati.ac.at 1 Grasso G, Malagoli A, Marr´e D, Bellingeri E, Braccini V, Roncallo S, Scati N, and Siri A S 2002 Physica C 378-381 899 2 Kitaguchi H and Kumakura H 2005 Supercond. Sci. Technol. 18 S284 3 Lezza P, Gladyshevskii R, Senatore C, Cusanelli G, Suo H L, and Fl¨ ukiger R 2005 IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 15 3196 10 IV. CONCLUSIONS