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1 – 10 of 344Chiara Rossato and Paola Castellani
This paper aims to examine how long-lived firms can further develop through digitalisation in terms of actions, conditions and effects from a competitiveness perspective.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how long-lived firms can further develop through digitalisation in terms of actions, conditions and effects from a competitiveness perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study follows an inductive approach based on a survey conducted via interviews undertaken with nine long-lived Italian firms. The dimensions of the model (command, continuity, community, connection), elaborated by Miller and Le Breton-Miller (2005) in relation to longevity factors, were chosen to analyse digitalisation’s contribution to these long-lived firms’ development.
Findings
The digitalisation implemented by the analysed firms contributed in a variety of ways: (1) improved the efficiency and effectiveness of their business processes, (2) enhanced the understanding of customer experience, (3) supported their craftsmanship and the transmission of the knowledge included in the entrepreneurial path, (4) increased the awareness of the cultural value of the firms’ heritage and (5) allowed for the development of cutting-edge design skills by experimenting with content on different digital platforms and devices.
Practical implications
This study suggests managers of long-lived firms develop digital skills that allow them to interact with the rapid evolution of this context and understand how to effectively implement digitalisation in their specific firm. From this perspective, it is strategic to establish or strengthen collaborative network relationships to acquire such necessary skills.
Originality/value
This study provides novel empirical evidence on how long-lived firms are facing the challenge of digitalisation in terms of actions, conditions and effects to improve their competitiveness and ensure their survival.
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David Bogataj, Valerija Rogelj, Marija Bogataj and Eneja Drobež
The purpose of this study is to develop new type of reverse mortgage contract. How to provide adequate services and housing for an increasing number of people that are dependent…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop new type of reverse mortgage contract. How to provide adequate services and housing for an increasing number of people that are dependent on the help of others is a crucial question in the European Union (EU). The housing stock in Europe is not fit to support a shift from institutional care to the home-based independent living. Some 90% of houses in the UK and 70%–80% in Germany are not adequately built, as they contain accessibility barriers for people with emerging functional impairments. The available reverse mortgage contracts do not allow for relocation to their own adapted facilities. How to finance the adaptation from housing equity is discussed.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have extended the existing loan reverse mortgage model. Actuarial methods based on the equivalence of the actuarial present values and the multiple decrement approach are used to evaluate premiums for flexible longevity and lifetime long-term care (LTC) insurance for financing adequate facilities.
Findings
The adequate, age-friendly housing provision that is appropriate to support the independence and autonomy of seniors with declining functional capacities can lower the cost of health care and improve the well-being of older adults. For financing the development of this kind of facilities for seniors, the authors developed the reverse mortgage scheme with embedded longevity and LTC insurance as a possible financial instrument for better LTC services and housing with care in assisted-living facilities. This kind of facilities should be available for the rapid growth of older cohorts.
Research limitations/implications
The numerical example is based on rather crude numbers, because of lack of data, as the developed reverse mortgage product with LTC insurance is a novelty. Intensity of care and probabilities of care in certain category of care will change after the introduction of this product.
Practical implications
The model results indicate that it is possible to successfully tie an insurance product to the insured and not to the object.
Social implications
The introduction of this insurance option will allow many older adult with low pension benefits and a substantial home equity to safely opt for a reverse mortgage and benefit from better social care.
Originality/value
While currently available reverse mortgage contracts lapse when the homeowner moves to assisted-living facilities in any EU Member State, in the paper a new method is developed where multiple adjustments of housing to the functional capacities with relocation is possible, under the same insurance and reverse mortgage contract. The case of Slovenia is presented as a numerical example. These insurance products, as a novelty, are portable, so the homeowner can move in own specialised housing unit in assisted-living facilities and keep the existing reverse mortgage contract with no additional costs, which is not possible in the current insurance products. With some small modifications, the method is useful for any EU Member State.
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Michelle Carr and Stefan Jooss
COVID-19 has forced Big 4 firms to challenge existing management control arrangements and adapt their ways of working. Yet, we know little about how management control might be…
Abstract
Purpose
COVID-19 has forced Big 4 firms to challenge existing management control arrangements and adapt their ways of working. Yet, we know little about how management control might be enacted in the future of the sustainable workplace. The objective of the study is to examine the patterns of management control change in the Big 4 accounting firms during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting an exploratory qualitative research design, the authors draw on 42 interviews with directors and associates in the Big 4 professional services firms.
Findings
The findings reveal two pathways of management control change including alignment and displacement. The authors found that relatively minor adaptions to action and result controls were relied upon to respond to substantial cultural and personnel control changes.
Originality/value
The contributions are threefold: the authors take a temporal perspective to (1) unpack the changes to management control arrangements; (2) theorise the findings by developing a three-dimensional taxonomy of change pathways encompassing pace, scope and longevity of management control change and (3) contextualise management control arrangements in a hybrid work setting.
Highlights
COVID-19 has forced Big 4 firms to challenge existing management control arrangements.
Literature has focused on traditional, onsite work settings and largely ignored change pathways.
The authors take a temporal perspective to unpack changes to management control arrangements.
Big 4 firms adapted to hybrid work with substantial changes to personnel and cultural controls.
The authors theorise the findings by developing a three-dimensional taxonomy of change pathways.
COVID-19 has forced Big 4 firms to challenge existing management control arrangements.
Literature has focused on traditional, onsite work settings and largely ignored change pathways.
The authors take a temporal perspective to unpack changes to management control arrangements.
Big 4 firms adapted to hybrid work with substantial changes to personnel and cultural controls.
The authors theorise the findings by developing a three-dimensional taxonomy of change pathways.
Details
Keywords
Where does one need to intervene in to be most effective? The purpose of this study is to rank areas of the resource system, according to how much of a change can be expected from…
Abstract
Purpose
Where does one need to intervene in to be most effective? The purpose of this study is to rank areas of the resource system, according to how much of a change can be expected from interventions in an area, in relation to the problem of depleting resources.
Design/methodology/approach
Principles of structured analysis are used to model how society uses resources. From this model, nine intervention areas are defined. These intervention areas are ranked in terms of effectiveness, through the use of the analytic hierarchy process.
Findings
To be most effective, one must prioritize intervention areas as follows: material inputs to the operation phase; process inputs to the operation phase; products’ longevity; process inputs to the manufacturing phase; and material inputs to the manufacturing phase.
Practical implications
Most decisions are not made on the basis of rigorous analysis but by using heuristics (rules of thumb). The results of this study are expressed as rules of thumb. They can help decision makers prioritize what is most important, but without imposing new ways of working.
Originality/value
In the construction domain, heuristics that generalize the impact of actions (content), instead of intervention areas (context), currently seem to prevail. The heuristics of this study generalize the impact of intervention areas. Therefore, they provide an extra perspective for many decision makers. This extra perspective can help reduce mistakes that are typically made by oversimplifying matters.
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Patrycja Klimas, Karina Sachpazidu, Sylwia Stańczyk, Michał Nadolny, Alicja Grześkowiak and Agnieszka Stanimir
This study examines what is the significance of the features of inter-organizational relationships in consecutive phases of the relationship life cycle.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines what is the significance of the features of inter-organizational relationships in consecutive phases of the relationship life cycle.
Design/methodology/approach
Qu antitative, large-scale surveying was run on 786 software developers operating in Poland. The research hypothesis regarding the systematic increase of relational features (i.e. commitment, communication, (lack of) conflict, cooperation, intensity, investments, longevity, multidimensionality of bonds, trust, and velocity) across the particular relationship life cycle phase le (i.e. initial, development, maintenance, dormant/end, and reactivation) was verified using ANOVA and post-hoc tests.
Findings
The results show that the majority of considered features of inter-organizational relationships non-significantly but progressively strengthen from the initial phase, through the development phase, to the maintenance phase, then significantly weaken in the dormant/end phase and strengthen again in the reactivation phase. Interestingly, velocity–as the only examined feature–significantly increases in dormant/end and then decreases if the relationship is reactivated.
Originality/value
Prior studies were focusing on single feature, this one offers a holistic view considering ten relational facets. Moreover, this is one of the few research studies exploring the changes of relational features adopting the life cycle perspective.
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Sarah Jayne Briggs, Zoe P. Robinson, Rachel Louise Hadley and Rebecca Laycock Pedersen
This paper aims to explore a single-institution case study of partnership working between students, the University and Students’ Union, through four student-led sustainability…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore a single-institution case study of partnership working between students, the University and Students’ Union, through four student-led sustainability projects. The paper analyses the role and value of these partnerships and provides advice for other institutions on effective partnership working between these stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach
A single case study of partnership working with multiple embedded units of analysis (four projects) is presented based on reflections of practitioners involved in the projects who have different roles within the University and Students’ Union.
Findings
The longevity and effectiveness of student-led projects, and disciplinary-breadth of students engaged, can be enhanced by greater collaboration with, and integration into, University and Students’ Union systems. Partnership working between different stakeholders is key to overcoming challenges and the success of student-led projects, helped by key staff “enablers”. These projects provide myriad learning opportunities for developing change agency skills, even where projects are relatively short-lived and could be seen as failures in terms of longevity.
Research limitations/implications
This analysis is based solely on practitioner reflections, with limited direct quantification or qualitative data on the projects’ impacts on the students themselves.
Originality/value
This paper draws together the experiences and reflections of four practitioners with different roles within the University and Students’ Union across four different projects and provides advice to generate student-led sustainability projects which have longevity and impact for wider student populations and future generations of cohorts.
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This paper aims to explore the challenges facing the development of a takāful retirement annuity plan in Malaysia. It also aims at exploring a new platform to re-launch the same…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the challenges facing the development of a takāful retirement annuity plan in Malaysia. It also aims at exploring a new platform to re-launch the same product after being withdrawn from the Malaysian annuity market a few years ago.
Design/methodology/approach
The research adopts a qualitative approach to address the possible challenges hindering the development of a takāful retirement annuity plan in Malaysia. The research will not discuss the Sharīʿah issues deemed settled in previous researches but will only focus on technical challenges related to the instruments of investment and prudential measures.
Findings
The research found that various challenges face the development of a takāful annuity plan in Malaysia. Some of those challenges are the downsizing of the ṣukūk market, the shortage of long-term ṣukūk, longevity risk and risk-based capitalization. The research found that there is a need for a diversified portfolio of securities instead of solely using ṣukūk as an investment instrument in this product.
Originality/value
Re-launching the takāful annuity plan in Malaysia requires the identification of actual challenges facing the development of such a product. The product purported to be re-launched would benefit a large segment of retirees who do not have enough savings during the retirement age. The introduction of such a product will also expand the takāful market in annuities, which remains untapped.
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The purpose of this paper is to apply what can be learned from the emergence of nature tourism to understand some current and future trends of tourism.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to apply what can be learned from the emergence of nature tourism to understand some current and future trends of tourism.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted the evolutionary paradigm for investigation.
Findings
The emergence of nature tourism in early medieval China can be attributed to four major factors, including transformation of value orientations, seeking longevity, interest in suburbs and population migration.
Research limitations/implications
Historical studies help understand the current and future trends. When the contributing factors for nature tourism are linked to the contemporary world, it can be found that these factors are still playing a part in shaping tourism trends or patterns in their original or alternative forms. These trends or patterns are worthy of scholarly investigations.
Originality/value
This paper offers a comprehensive understanding of the origins of nature tourism.
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Anna Róza Varga, Norbert Sipos, Andras Rideg and Lívia Lukovszki
The purpose of this paper is to identify the differences between Hungarian family-owned businesses (FOBs) and non-family-owned businesses (NFOBs) concerning the elements of SME…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the differences between Hungarian family-owned businesses (FOBs) and non-family-owned businesses (NFOBs) concerning the elements of SME competitiveness and financial performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The research covers the Hungarian data set of the Global Competitiveness Project (GCP, www.sme-gcp.org) of 738 (data collection between 2018 and 2020) non-listed SMEs, of which 328 were FOBs. The study uses the comprehensive, multidimensional competitiveness measurement of the GCP built on the resource-based view (RBV) and the configuration theory. Financial performance was captured with two composite indicators: short-term and long-term financial performance (LTFP). The comparative analysis between FOBs and NFOBs was conducted using binary logistic regression.
Findings
The results show that FOBs are more prone to focusing on local niche markets with higher longevity and LTFP than NFOBs. However, FOBs have lower innovation intensity and less organised administrative procedures. The most contradicting finding is that the FOBs’ higher LTFP is accompanied by significantly lower competitiveness than in the case of NFOBs.
Originality/value
This study goes beyond other GCP studies by including composite financial performance measures among the variables examined. The combination of performance-causing (resources and capabilities) and performance-representing (financial performance) variables provides a better understanding of the non-listed SMEs in terms of family ownership. The results help academia to enrich the RBV-competitiveness, the non-listed SME management and finance literature, and policymakers to design business development and support schemes. They also show future entrepreneurs the impact of family ownership on entrepreneurial success.
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Daniel William Mackenzie Wright and Santa Zascerinska
Is humanity heading to immortal living? If so, what areas of society are playing an active role in achieving this? In order to understand this, the study explores the relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
Is humanity heading to immortal living? If so, what areas of society are playing an active role in achieving this? In order to understand this, the study explores the relationship between immortality and the wellness and medical tourism industry to seek potential relationships between them and ultimately, asks difficult questions about the growth of these tourism sectors and the potential need for greater regulation of them.
Design/methodology/approach
Taking a pragmatic philosophical approach and through the examination of refined information from secondary sources and published material and reports, the study presents original theoretical knowledge and a model exploring tourism and human immortality.
Findings
This paper argues that continued growth in the wellness and medical markets today could lead to a world where transhumanists and cyborgs are present in our world, even taking over from Homo sapiens. The study presents a model highlighting the potential role of wellness and medical tourism markets, illustrating the potential for future consumer services that could further fuel the search for immortality. Thus, how such markets and consumer desires are (in)directly supporting humanities desire for (non-human) immortal existence.
Originality/value
Today, individuals are driven by wellness practices and medical and cosmetic desires and are willing to travel the globe in search of companies who are either capable of carrying out the desired procedures or seeking prices more affordable to them. This research offers novel insights into these complex relationships and maps the affiliation between wellness and medical practices and the concept of immortality.