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Article
Publication date: 13 November 2017

Jose Carlos M. Pinho and Douglas Thompson

Drawing insights from institutional theory, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the synergistic effects of a range of entrepreneurial framework conditions (EFCs) on the…

Abstract

Purpose

Drawing insights from institutional theory, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the synergistic effects of a range of entrepreneurial framework conditions (EFCs) on the capacity to start a business within different types of economies.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a preliminary study that uses data from the National Expert Survey-Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (NES-GEM). Specifically, the data were gathered through the application of a questionnaire to National Entrepreneurship Experts in a cross-cultural context. Two countries – Portugal and Angola – are analysed.

Findings

Among the five structural relationships involving institutional drivers analysed, four are found to be statistically significant in the Portuguese sample. Three are found to be statistically significant in the Angolan sample. The results from the multigroup analysis did not support most of the proposed relationship between the two countries.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited by the number and type of countries selected and by the fact that each sub-sample covers several years. It also relies on the perceptions of national experts on entrepreneurship covering several areas. Another limitation is based on the fact that this study emphasises mainly a macro perspective. Therefore, interpretation of these findings and their generalisation should be made with caution.

Originality/value

First, this study addresses an area of the GEM model that is believed to be under-researched (NES). Second, the model presented is based on latent variables and analysed through a variance-based method, PLS-structural equation modelling. Third, this study compares the proposed relationships between two sub-sample data sets that represent a factor-driven economy and an innovation-driven economy. Fourth, and most importantly, this study responds to the call for the need to use a new procedure for measurement invariance assessment for composite modelling.

Details

International Marketing Review, vol. 34 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-1335

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 November 2007

Taran Patel

Many managers of Indo‐French alliances consider culture to be a failure, rather than a success factor because they address the national or corporate level for cross‐cultural…

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Abstract

Purpose

Many managers of Indo‐French alliances consider culture to be a failure, rather than a success factor because they address the national or corporate level for cross‐cultural comparisons. In contrast, this study proposes using the Douglasian Cultural Theory (CT) to address the transactional level of culture. In so doing, it aims to overcome some of the limitations of the national, corporate and transactional approaches and provide a systematic framework for discussing the viability of international alliances.

Design/methodology/approach

An analysis of 48 ethnographic interviews and field studies was conducted in 25 Indo‐French alliances.

Findings

Through an analysis of the ethnographic interviews and field studies conducted, the paper offers the following guidelines to managers for the design of viable alliances: the commonly‐cited interdependence of the hierarchical and competitive solidarities is not sufficient to ensure the viability of international alliances; the presence of a third solidarity seems essential; an analysis of failed alliances reveals that fatalism is not the third solidarity we are looking for; and an analysis of viable alliances shows that the egalitarian solidarity plays a role in ensuring the viability of international alliances by building a bridge between the hierarchical and competitive solidarity, thereby preventing gridlocks.

Research limitations/implications

Major methodological limitations of this study include over‐emphasis on ethnographic interviews for data and use of unsystematic criteria for identifying solidarities in Indo‐French alliances

Originality/value

Unlike the paper's predecessors, it recommends that cultural plurality, not cultural domination, leads to viable alliances. International managers often tend to impose their own thought styles on others, thereby neglecting the inherent wisdom of other thought styles. The paper stresses that cultural diversity without duality leads to viability.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 45 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2003

Ruth Landau

Israel is 280 miles long and 10 miles wide at its narrowest point; it is comparable in size to the State of New Jersey. The total population of Israel is currently about 6.5…

719

Abstract

Israel is 280 miles long and 10 miles wide at its narrowest point; it is comparable in size to the State of New Jersey. The total population of Israel is currently about 6.5 million, of the same order as the populations of Austria, Switzerland or Denmark. Eighty per cent of the population are Jews, 15 per cent Muslim, 3 per cent Christians and 2 per cent Druze (Yaffe, 1999). Israel is a highly urban and industrialized country, with over 95 per cent of the population living in cities or towns. Israel’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is approximately US $17,500. This, despite its geographical location in the Middle East, makes Israel’s economic level equal to that of England, placing Israel among the developed European countries.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 23 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 17 September 2020

Ruth Dixon

This paper investigates how outcomes-based performance management (PM) regimes operate in the partnerships known as social impact bonds (SIBs), which bring together partners from…

1859

Abstract

Purpose

This paper investigates how outcomes-based performance management (PM) regimes operate in the partnerships known as social impact bonds (SIBs), which bring together partners from the public, private and third sectors. The findings are analysed in the light of the different cultural world views of the partners.

Design/methodology/approach

Published evaluations of 25 UK SIBs were analysed by a qualitative multiple case study approach. This study of secondary sources permitted the analysis of a wide range of SIB partnerships from near contemporary accounts.

Findings

Outcomes frameworks led to rigorous PM regimes that brought the cultural differences between partners into focus. While partnerships benefitted from the variety of viewpoints and expertise, the differences in outlook simultaneously led to strains and tensions. In order to mitigate such tensions, some stakeholders conformed to the outlooks of others.

Practical implications

The need to achieve a predefined set of payable outcomes embeds a “linear” view of intervention and effect on the SIB partners and a performance regime in which some partners dominate. In designing accountability systems for partnerships such as SIBs, commissioners should consider how the performance regime will affect the interests of all stakeholders.

Originality/value

This study adds to the cultural theory literature which has rarely considered three-way partnerships embodying hierarchical, individualist and egalitarian world views and how performance regimes operate in such partnerships. Three-way partnerships are thought to be rare and short-lived, but this empirical study shows that they can be successful albeit over a predefined lifespan.

Details

International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 34 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3558

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1999

Clive Smallman and David Weir

The paper starts with a description of a risk management model more suited to the current business environment. Key to the introduction of the model is the success of…

4558

Abstract

The paper starts with a description of a risk management model more suited to the current business environment. Key to the introduction of the model is the success of organizational communication and culture. Aspects of culture are explained using cultural theory. This is followed by a discussion of the critical role of communication, and the theory of the social amplification of risk is presented and analysed. From here the paper moves to the development of a framework explaining communications behaviour during crisis. The notions of structural distortion and communications degradation during crises are used to explain behavioural (cultural changes) distortion. Total risk management is presented as a notional solution to these problems.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 July 2019

Maria Huertas González-Serrano, Ferran Calabuig Moreno, Irena Valantine and Josep Crespo Hervás

The sport sector is a very competitive and dynamic industry, son intrapreneurial employees are needed. However, although entrepreneurial intentions in sport sciences students have…

Abstract

Purpose

The sport sector is a very competitive and dynamic industry, son intrapreneurial employees are needed. However, although entrepreneurial intentions in sport sciences students have been studied, less is known about intrapreneurial intentions. It is, therefore, the purpose of this paper to validate a scale to measure the intrapreneurial intentions of sports science students from two different countries.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of 304 final-year students from the sport sector of two different countries (Spain and Lithuania) was analyzed. First, an exploratory factorial analysis of the two samples was performed separately, and then a confirmatory factorial analysis was carried out to performed. Finally, in order to check the invariance of the measuring instrument, a multi-group analysis was performed with the constraints of all factors variances and all factors loading.

Findings

The entrepreneurial intentions scale works well both in its English version in the Lithuanian sports students’ and in its Spanish version with the university sports students from Spain. Therefore, it can be said that there is a metric invariance. However, the scale presents better fit indexes, reliability and validity in its English version. Lithuanian sports students scored significantly higher on the risk-taking dimension than Spanish students.

Research limitations/implications

The scale has only been validated with final-year sport science students from two countries. It is necessary to test this scale with a larger sample of students from different fields and countries.

Practical implications

This scale can be used in both in Spanish and English versions to detect potential entrepreneurs in the sports sector, so it can help universities and employers to detect future intraentrepreneurs in the sports sector.

Social implications

Social implication of this paper is the detection of potential entrepreneurs who can improve economic, social or sports performance in organizations or sports companies.

Originality/value

A new tool to detect the potential sport intrapreneurs in university students has been created. Moreover, a cross-cultural validation of the intrapreneurial intentions scale (in English and Spanish version) with sport sciences students from two different countries has been performed.

Details

Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2045-2101

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 1948

It is important to have clearly in mind what is meant by fats, when discussing the part they play in our diet. To many people the word fat calls to mind butter, lard, margarine…

Abstract

It is important to have clearly in mind what is meant by fats, when discussing the part they play in our diet. To many people the word fat calls to mind butter, lard, margarine and the obviously fatty parts of meats and bacon. It is fat that can be seen. It is appropriate, therefore, to apply to it the convenient term “visible fat”, in contradistinction to other fats contained in food, not so generally recognised as fats, which are designated “invisible”. The latter are by no means unimportant. As we shall see, they provide something of the order of one‐half of our total daily intake. A few examples will illustrate the contributions foods usually regarded as not fatty can make to the total. Lean meat contains 6–8 per cent of fat; cheese, from 4–30 per cent, depending on the quality of the milk from which it was made; dried eggs, 42 per cent; rabbit, 5 per cent; herrings, 10 per cent; flour, 1–2 per cent; bread, 1 per cent; oatmeal, 8 per cent. Analysis of diets eaten in this country before the war shows that more than half the total fat consumed was in the form of foods providing “invisible” fat. That, of course, was in the days when a sausage contained 30 per cent of fat and a good cake as much as 15 per cent. Before passing to consider the significance of fats in our daily diet we should briefly review the more important facts concerning their behaviour in the body and what is known of their function.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 50 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 25 January 2008

Irena Vida and James Reardon

This study focuses on consumer choice behavior in the context of a new European Union (EU) member state by examining cognitive, affective and normative mechanisms in consumer…

5177

Abstract

Purpose

This study focuses on consumer choice behavior in the context of a new European Union (EU) member state by examining cognitive, affective and normative mechanisms in consumer preference formation for domestic vs imported products.

Design/methodology/approach

Data is drawn from a survey of 714 adult consumers. The research instrument included construct measures adapted from previous studies. The measurement model of domestic consumption was tested via covariance analysis. Once the construct reliability and validities were established, the structural model was evaluated to test the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

The findings suggest that affective and normative constructs (i.e. consumer ethnocentrism and patriotism) are stronger determinants of domestic consumption than rational considerations (the cognitive mechanism) such as perceptions of relative product quality of domestic vs imported products. The role of patriotism and cosmopolitanism as factors fuelling ethnocentric tendencies are confirmed.

Practical implications

Our results, showing the considerable relative strength of patriotism and ethnocentrism on domestic consumption suggest that managers of local brands and domestic institutions should be able to enhance their communication programs and develop close bonds with their consumers. This finding is an important signal to international entrants in positioning their international offerings, particularly as strong local brands are gaining market share in many emerging consumer markets.

Originality/value

In view of emerging transnational groupings such as the EU, this study examines possible consumer resistance to economic integration. It uses realistic data set drawn from adult consumers and focuses on a relatively homogeneous country with a small population allowing for a good external validity of findings.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 25 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 March 2010

Anthony Patterson

The purpose of this paper is to explore introspection in marketing research, its controversial origins, its positioning as an art form, the possibilities and the pitfalls of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore introspection in marketing research, its controversial origins, its positioning as an art form, the possibilities and the pitfalls of research based on this method, and how to successfully enter into its creative spirit.

Design/methodology/approach

Although its overall approach is broadly conceptual, in a similar fashion to the dramatic device of a‐play‐within‐a‐play, the paper makes a habit of using introspection to reflect on introspection.

Findings

While it is clear that well‐written introspections can deliver rich stream‐of‐consciousness accounts of marketing‐relevant goodness from beginning to end, they provide more than just frivolous entertainment. The innermost imperative of introspection equates well with consumption, creativity and aestheticisation, the corner‐stones of arts marketing.

Research limitations/implications

The inherent mucky‐mindedness of introspection as a formal method lays its success or failure on the shoulders of the paper's author.

Practical implications

Whatever their interpretive methodology of choice, arts marketers, indeed all marketers, should give serious thought to integrating introspection into their research approach.

Originality/value

While many of the ideas in the paper are pilfered from other sources (see long list of references), the author is proud to assert that precisely these words have never been written in precisely this order.

Details

International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, vol. 4 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6182

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 1941

Generally speaking a “new” loaf is demanded and the baker who cannot deliver “new” loaves loses trade. But what is a “new” loaf? From the point of view of the chemist this…

Abstract

Generally speaking a “new” loaf is demanded and the baker who cannot deliver “new” loaves loses trade. But what is a “new” loaf? From the point of view of the chemist this question has formed the subject of innumerable investigations. A definition of a “new” loaf demands an understanding of “staleness” and the staling of bakery products is a subject of great complexity. The old idea was that it was entirely a question of the “drying out” of the bread, but cereal chemistry has proved that such a solution, namely the prevention of “drying out,” is only of partial efficacy; in fact “staleness” is caused by a change in the starch of the flour which is inherent in it and cannot be prevented by precautions which maintain the moisture content at a certain figure. The investigation of this type of staling has occupied the attention of many famous chemists, but the full explanation has not yet been obtained. Mass production has demanded many studies in that aspect of science known as “physical chemistry.” An example can be found in the preparation of certain sauces. Those of you who have made mayonnaise sauce know that to beat the olive oil into the mixture is fraught with difficulties. By means of the fork, used as a beater, the oil is distributed in very small particles through the mass of liquid, so that every globule of oil is separated from every other one. If the action docs not proceed properly the system breaks down and the mayonnaise “turns” and is spoiled. The manufacturer has to prevent this “turning,” not in a few pints but in hundreds of gallons. It is the chemist who has enabled him to do this and to manufacture with success those scores of salad‐dressings which are so delectable and the purchase of which relieves the housewife of so many hours of work and so much arm‐ache. An example of some interest is concerned with smoked salmon, which normally is a very variable product, whether it be the highly salted variety of the northern climes or the much less salted kind which has found favour in this country. The production of a lightly salted product is far more difficult than the more salted variety because much smaller changes in salt content become more noticeable. These small differences are so obvious to the confirmed smoked salmon eater that he detects not only the differences between one grade and another, but also the differences of salt content that occur in different parts of the same side of fish. It has fallen to the chemist so to change the methods of production of the lightly flavoured variety that the distribution of salt through the fish is even and the flavour therefore constant. This study of smoked salmon is only an example of the very big problem of standardisation, standardisation demanded by the consumer—and it follows that the big manufacturer must produce goods of standard flavour and appearance. Science steps in and gives the manufacturer those controls which enable him to produce, day in and day out, that standard range of article, whether it be ice‐cream or toad‐in‐the‐hole, Worcester sauce or cheese cakes, roast beef or jelly crystals. Modern science has introduced a new factor into our conception of what food should be. In the past it was only necessary to ensure that food should be “pure and wholesome,” by which was meant—in general terms—digestible and without any harmful constituents, be they natural or adventitious, bacterial or otherwise. So long as food complied with this broad definition everyone was satisfied. But biochemists and physiologists have demonstrated the importance of other factors, salts and vitamins, and it is necessary to consider the new situation thus created because it may be that the treatment of food to retain those substances may make it necessary to change preconceived notions. It may be that “palatability” may be affected, palatability which includes taste and appearance and odour. The whole subject is so complicated and, notwithstanding the enormous amount of work carried out, so little understood that no one as yet can be dogmatic, no one can state what are the optimum amounts of vitamins required by ordinary persons to keep them in good health. Having, however, decided the amount required, are we to try to preserve such quantities as occur naturally, or are we to fortify the food which we cat by added synthetic or even by purified natural vitamins? A further important consideration is whether the degree of maturity of, say, fruit in relation to maximum vitamin content coincides with optimum palatabilty. Certain it is that information gradually being accumulated on the importance—in many cases vital importance—of the minor constituents of foodstuffs leads to the conclusion that, to ensure the presence of all valuable minor constituents—be they known or unknown—the foodstuffs must, as articles of diet, be ingested almost in their entirety. This is probably an extreme view, for, in many cases, the result would be a product of reduced palatability or appearance, or, what is probably more important, “different,” and people do not like their food to be abnormal, i.e., to differ from their preconceived notion of what it should be. Nevertheless an “improvement” in the method of production, put into practice by the food manufacturer with the best intentions, may possibly result in a lowering of the dietetic value of the food, as, for example, by mechanical removal of an important part (the classical example being polished rice), by heat treatment, by oxidation or by materials added during cooking. The minor metallic constituents of food are gradually being revealed in their true importance. Copper, zinc, and iron are now known to be of importance. It is probable that every baby is born poor in calcium but rich in iron; milk, the natural food of the infant, is rich in calcium. It is only in the last few years that it has been shown that green vegetables as usually cooked are of very little real value. Cooking green vegetables in water containing sodium carbonate results in the almost complete destruction of the Vitamin C, and the discarding of the water removes the extracted salts. A green product certainly results but of greatly reduced nutritional value. On the other hand, it would appear that little destruction of vitamin activity takes place when the canning of vegetables or fruits is properly controlled. Sherman has said that attention to mineral salts and vitamins will lead to “buoyant” as distinguished from merely “passable” health. It is obvious that education of the public is essential if an intelligent use is to be made of the knowledge being gained by chemists and allied scientists. It is a most important fact that methods are being developed to assay foods for vitamins by chemical means. Biological feeding tests are obviously unsuitable for control purposes but, as the chemical identity of the vitamins becomes more clarified, chemical tests will become available for their determination. It is obviously the duty of the medical services of the country to guide the public as far as is possible on questions of nutrition. When such guidance becomes effective, the food producer will not be slow to see that his goods are up to the standard necessary, adding one more burden to the already loaded back of the chemist concerned with food production.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 43 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

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