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1 – 10 of 41Igor Gurkov and Michael J. Morley
This paper aims to present the impact of several likely trajectories of development for global industries, namely, re-shoring, regionalization, diversification and replication…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present the impact of several likely trajectories of development for global industries, namely, re-shoring, regionalization, diversification and replication, recently identified by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, on the evolution of the corporate parenting styles (CPSs) of multinational corporations (MNCs).
Design/methodology/approach
This viewpoint presents a novel view of CPSs as a set of relationships between the corporate centers of MNCs and their subsidiaries, including domestic ones, identifies the most likely connections between anticipated trajectories of development in global industries and the evolution of CPSs of MNCs and outlines directions for further research.
Findings
The anticipated trajectories of the development of global industries may result in changes in prevailing CPSs and lead to the proliferation of previously less common parenting styles. Although many of the anticipated changes in CPSs may be pursued by corporate headquarters (CHQs), a combination of powerful subsidiaries putting bottom-up pressure on CHQs and powerful owners capable of imposing requirements on top management teams and generating top-down pressure may affect the CPSs used by corporations.
Originality/value
The authors connect possible trajectories of development for global industries with the evolution of CPSs of MNCs.
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Fleur Sharafizad, Kerry Brown, Uma Jogulu and Maryam Omari
Literature around the careers of female academics is targeted mainly toward identifying and examining career progression inhibitors, while the drivers appear largely unexplored…
Abstract
Purpose
Literature around the careers of female academics is targeted mainly toward identifying and examining career progression inhibitors, while the drivers appear largely unexplored. This paper aims to contribute to contemporary knowledge by identifying drivers to the career progression of female academics in Australia. With COVID-19 currently impacting the careers of female academics this knowledge can assist universities and human resource (HR) professionals in developing policies and practices to better facilitate female academic career progression.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirically this paper draws on a qualitative study of 18 male and 29 female academics, as well as nine senior university stakeholders. The authors employed semi-structured interviews and a novel methodology, Draw, Write, Reflect.
Findings
In line with attribution theory, senior stakeholders mainly identified organisational efforts, including leadership, gender equity endeavours, recruitment and promotion approaches, as well as a construct known as “relative to opportunity considerations”, as drivers of female academics’ career progression. Female academics, however, largely attributed their career progression to personal factors, such as family support, informal mentoring, and determination and persistence.
Practical implications
The findings have implications for universities and HR practices seeking to facilitate female academic career progression. Implementation of the drivers identified may enhance female academics’ abilities to progress their careers.
Originality/value
By focussing on the drivers of, rather than the barriers to, female academic careers, the research is novel in its identification of a previously unexplored mismatch between organisational attribution and individual attribution of career progression drivers thereby advancing knowledge of gender differences in academic careers.
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Sara Rolando, Gaia Cuomo, Airi-Alina Allaste, Venus Athena Vangsgaard Fabricius, Torsten Kolind and Merlin Läänemets
This paper aims to investigate the cultural meanings of excessive drinking in three different countries with different levels of alcohol use chosen as case studies of wider…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the cultural meanings of excessive drinking in three different countries with different levels of alcohol use chosen as case studies of wider geographies representing Northern (Denmark), Southern (Italy) and Eastern (Estonia) Europe.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected according to the Reception Analytical Group Interview method, using video clips as stimuli to enhance comparability. Eight online focus groups were organized in each country for a total number of 128 participants. Symbolic boundaries defining what drinking patterns are socially acceptable were then analysed to look at cross-national variations.
Findings
Results show how different conceptualizations of excessive drinking persist, although a convergence process among drinking patterns is also observed, which suggests that differences mainly depend on meanings and values attributed to intoxication. These are both rooted in the traditional drinking cultures and affected by ongoing social and economic change processes.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability, even at country level, as there are differences also within the same drinking culture; however, addressing these differences was beyond the scope of the present study, which aimed to contribute to understanding persisting differences in European drinking culture despite different drivers seem to act for globalization of drinking habits.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for the development of tailored and effective prevention messages, considering rooted attitudes and cultural values attached to drinking and drunkenness in different European geographies, which are also related to conceptualizations of risks and pleasure.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils an identified need to understand persisting differences in alcohol-related behaviours and outcome in different European countries emerging from quantitative data.
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Manoj Kumar, Rekha Bos, Emma Emily de Wit and J.G.F. Bunders-Aelen
This study aims to evaluate how a community psychiatry model, referred to as the Mental Health Action Trust (MHAT) in India, provides decentralized care and comprehensive services…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to evaluate how a community psychiatry model, referred to as the Mental Health Action Trust (MHAT) in India, provides decentralized care and comprehensive services to people with severe mental illness living in poverty. Using the complex adaptive system (CAS) framework, the authors aim to understand the factors that contribute to the diverse outcomes of the MHAT community mental health programme as observed in four different locations.
Design/methodology/approach
Four MHAT clinics were purposively chosen from two districts in Kerala. A comparative case study methodology was used to document each clinic’s MHAT services and activities, as found during field visits and interviews with staff members and volunteers.
Findings
The study shows that all four clinics met the basic aim of providing free, quality mental health care to the poorest populations, although not all aspects of the comprehensive model could be equally provided. Alignment with the MHAT vision, appropriate leadership, the relationship with partners and their level of community engagement determined the varied success between clinics.
Originality/value
The current study evaluation stresses that community ownership is crucial. Careful attention must be paid to the characteristics of selected partners, including their leadership styles and ability to garner resources.
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Susan V. White and Karen Hallows
This case was researched using publicly available sources, including Mercury Systems financial filings and press releases, news stories about the seasoned equity offering…
Abstract
Research methodology
This case was researched using publicly available sources, including Mercury Systems financial filings and press releases, news stories about the seasoned equity offering, financial information from Bloomberg and industry information from IBISWorld Industry Reports and articles related to seasoned/secondary equity offerings, intangible asset valuation and the use of revolving lines of credit. Quotes are taken from Mercury financial reports and press releases and express the (optimistic) opinions of company executives.
Case overview/synopsis
Mercury Systems, a technology company in the aerospace and defense industry, announced a six million share seasoned stock offering in June 2019. This resulted in a 6% stock price decrease. A stock price decrease is a typical event when a firm announces the issuance of new common shares, but with Mercury Systems, there were concerns about how much money the firm needed to fund its strategy of growth through acquisitions. If internally generated funds were not sufficient, should the firm issue debt or have another seasoned equity issue? Students will look at the objectives and success of the most recent seasoned equity issue, determine future funds needs and how the firm should finance these needs.
Complexity academic level
This case is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students in corporate finance electives. Typically, topics such as seasoned equity offerings are not covered in introductory courses, so this is recommended for finance electives. Even in advanced finance courses, sometimes there is insufficient time to cover seasoned equity offerings.
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Madhura Rao, Lea Bilić, Aalt Bast and Alie de Boer
In this case study, we examine how a citrus peel valorising company based in the Netherlands was able to adopt a circular business model while navigating regulatory, managerial…
Abstract
Purpose
In this case study, we examine how a citrus peel valorising company based in the Netherlands was able to adopt a circular business model while navigating regulatory, managerial, and supply chain-related barriers.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth, semi-structured interviews with key personnel in the company, notes from field observations, photographs of the production process, and documents from a legal judgement served as data for this single, qualitative case study. Data were coded inductively using the in vivo technique and were further developed into four themes and a case description.
Findings
Results from our study indicate that the regulatory and political contexts in the Netherlands were critical to the company’s success. Like in the case of most fruitful industrial symbioses, partnerships founded on mutual trust and economically appealing value propositions played a crucial role in ensuring commercial viability. Collaborating with larger corporations and maintaining transparent communication with stakeholders were also significant contributing factors. Lastly, employees’ outlook towards circularity combined with their willingness to learn new skills were important driving factors as well.
Originality/value
In addition to expanding the scholarship on the adoption of circular business models, this research offers novel insights to policymakers and practitioners. It provides empirical evidence regarding the importance of public awareness, adaptable legislation, and harmonised policy goals for supporting sustainable entrepreneurship in the circular economy.
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Débora Domingo-Calabuig, Javier Rivera-Linares, Laura Lizondo-Sevilla and José Luis Alapont-Ramón
City planning and construction have embraced circular economy principles, converting them into various indicators. Particularly in the European context, the question “what…
Abstract
Purpose
City planning and construction have embraced circular economy principles, converting them into various indicators. Particularly in the European context, the question “what architecture for circularity?” is answered with policies focusing on techniques, materials and disassembling construction. This paper analyzes a new approach to sustainable design and explores the concept of Km0 architecture. The objective is to demonstrate the design strategies of a contemporary architecture based on local resources and knowledge, an architecture that works with the shortest possible loop in circularity, i.e. with the cycle that consumes the least amount of energy.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents two ways of understanding sustainability in architecture: the first as a result of policies and the second associated with the design and innovative-based New European Bauhaus initiative. Within the scope of this last understanding, the authors analyze three cases on the Spanish Mediterranean coast that have recently received media attention and prominence. The selection responds to a specific climate adaption through a certain typological and functional diversity of the works.
Findings
The studied cases exhibit a more equitable and cost-effective circularity based on the time factor, have long life-cycle designs and serve as repositories of cultural identity. Km0 architecture reduces emissions using local resources and mitigates environmental conditions by combining traditional and modern design strategies.
Originality/value
This paper fulfills an identified need to study the local understandings of the built environment that would ensure a more fair and inclusive European green transformation.
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Panagiotis Kordas, Konstantinos Fotopoulos, George Lampeas, Evangelos Karelas and Evgenios Louizos
Fuselage structures are subjected to combinations of axial, bending, shear and differential pressure loads. The validation of advanced metallic and composite fuselage designs…
Abstract
Purpose
Fuselage structures are subjected to combinations of axial, bending, shear and differential pressure loads. The validation of advanced metallic and composite fuselage designs against such loads is based on the full-scale testing of the fuselage barrel, which, however, is highly demanding from a time and cost viewpoint. This paper aims to assist in scaling-down the experimentation to the stiffened panel level which presents the opportunity to validate state-of-the-art designs at higher rates than previously attainable.
Design/methodology/approach
Development of a methodology to successfully design tests at the stiffened panel level and realize them using advanced, complex and adaptable test-rigs that are capable of introducing independently a set of distinct load types (e.g. internal overpressure, tension, shear) while applying appropriate boundary conditions at the edges of the stiffened panel.
Findings
A baseline test-rig configuration was developed after extensive parametric modelling studies at the stiffened panel level. The realization of the loading and boundary conditions on the test-rig was facilitated through innovative supporting and loading system set-ups.
Originality/value
The proposed test bench is novel and compared to the conventional counterparts more viable from an economic and manufacturing point of view. It leads to panel responses, which are as close as possible to those of the fuselage barrel in-flight and can be used for the execution of static or fatigue tests on metallic and thermoplastic curved integrally stiffened full-scale panels, representative of a business jet fuselage.
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Achilleas Vassilopoulos, Lydia Papadaki and Phoebe Koundouri
Storytelling through virtual reality (VR) combines the strengths of cutting-edge technology with traditional informational campaigns. As a tool for climate change mitigation, VR…
Abstract
Purpose
Storytelling through virtual reality (VR) combines the strengths of cutting-edge technology with traditional informational campaigns. As a tool for climate change mitigation, VR has been shown to educate individuals and stimulate both emotional and cognitive responses that promote pro-environmental behavior. This paper aims to investigate whether these benefits extend to the field of green investing through an experiment conducted with a sample of small business entrepreneurs.
Design/methodology/approach
The experimental design involved making choices between bonds varying in maturity dates, annual interest and environmental classification (regular versus green). To identify potential impacts of the immersive experience on investment decisions, these choices were made both before and after exposure to VR videos illustrating the devastating effects of climate change. A multiple price list was employed to elicit subjects' risk preferences, enabling the joint estimation of the treatment effect and the risk and time preference parameters.
Findings
The findings indicate that, when risk and time preference parameters are controlled for, a VR experience can nudge toward green investment choices. This effect is more profound among those who already exhibit a greater propensity to opt for green investments.
Originality/value
Previous research shows that negative emotions, such as guilt, affect pro-environmental intentions, as well as actions, while message vividness through immersive experiences is effective in nudging greener behavior. Since analogous results in the framework of financial investments are not currently available, this paper seeks to test whether VR videos depicting the adverse effects of climate change can generate negative emotions associated with experiencing these effects and make them salient in subsequent investment decisions made by small business entrepreneurs.
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