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21 – 30 of over 77000Performance measurement is a technique that has evolved in the European area only in recent times. Demands made on available information have changed primarily in line with the…
Abstract
Performance measurement is a technique that has evolved in the European area only in recent times. Demands made on available information have changed primarily in line with the efforts to instill more management into the public sector (Buschor & Schedler, 1994). Whereas traditional administration has focused primarily on the financing of tasks, the question of efficient and effective performance has assumed more importance today. Performance measurement systems are a response to new requirements of decision making bodies.
Reihaneh Bidar, Alistair Barros and Jason Watson
In the co-creation process from a network perspective, service is produced, designed, and evaluated entirely by the actors with dynamic roles and with less participation by the…
Abstract
Purpose
In the co-creation process from a network perspective, service is produced, designed, and evaluated entirely by the actors with dynamic roles and with less participation by the firm's employees in the service process. The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model that represents environmental stimuli and value perceptions that contribute to service co-creation behaviour in an online network.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 36 semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of two online programming communities – GitHub and Stack Overflow co-creators, with the data analysed using thematic analysis. The stimulus-organism-response model guided the development of the final model.
Findings
Social influence and trust are influential in actor value perceptions, including primary and network value, the interplay of which leads actors to co-production, supportive, and administrative behaviour. Environmental factors do not directly drive actors; rather it is the value that initiates and drives actors, which, by extension, initiates and drives the co-creation of services.
Research limitations/implications
The service co-creation behaviour model provides a basis for future research in the co-creation and co-destruction context to model behaviours within the online network organisation setting and thereby enable improvement of such systems. This model can be operationalised in a network environment through design features.
Originality/value
This paper provides a rich understanding of environmental stimuli and value perception factors that contribute to the co-creation of services, and identifies different types of behaviours in dynamic online networks. This paper presents a new model of different types of behaviours emerging from actor participation in the co-creation process.
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Mariette Strydom and Elizabeth Kempen
This paper aims to investigate the business operations of informal clothing manufacturing micro enterprises (CMMEs) and identifies ways to support owners to achieve economic…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the business operations of informal clothing manufacturing micro enterprises (CMMEs) and identifies ways to support owners to achieve economic sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach applying a case study design was used to study the business operations of 13 informal CMME owners at a business incubation hub (IH).
Findings
The study found that emerging CMME owners need ongoing generic business and fashion-related field-specific support particular to their business. Such support can be offered through the collaboration between higher education (HE) institutions and business IHs.
Social implications
Starting a clothing manufacturing business offers women in Africa the opportunity to improve both their personal and community well-being contributing to three sustainable development goals, namely, to end poverty, gender equality and empowering women, as well as sustainable consumption and production patterns. Partnering with existing business IHs, HE can influence skills-specific training that may contribute to the economic sustainability of emerging entrepreneurs and reduce poverty.
Originality/value
The study proposes in-house apparel apprenticeships to ensure the economic sustainability of the CMME, contributing to apparel entrepreneurship literature and fashion-based entrepreneurship education.
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Beata Jałocha, Ewa Bogacz-Wojtanowska, Anna Góral, Piotr Jedynak and Grażyna Prawelska-Skrzypek
The aim of the study was to illustrate how three different institutional logics, present in the implementation of action research, interact in a formalised project, in a…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the study was to illustrate how three different institutional logics, present in the implementation of action research, interact in a formalised project, in a traditional university setting.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is empirical in nature and the research method used is an instrumental case study. The case was the implementation of action research within the framework of an educational project co-financed by EU funds, conducted in a Polish public university. The research process was conducted from September 2017 to November 2019. The following techniques were used: document analysis, in-depth interviews, participatory observation during the project. Constant comparative analysis was used as an analytical approach.
Findings
The study indicates that action research, project management and university management follow different “logics”. The dominant logic of action research is problem-solving, of project management is efficiency and of university management is compliance. These different logics and the relationship between them is explained in the paper.
Originality/value
The research enriches the ongoing discussion on logic multiplicity and project management in a new context – that of the university environment and combines the issue of the implementation of action research with broader conversations on institutional logics.
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Maria Gabriela Miranda and Renata Borges
Technology-based incubators depend on high-level knowledge to constantly meet the demands of the market. Incubators offer a variety of specialized services to help startups…
Abstract
Purpose
Technology-based incubators depend on high-level knowledge to constantly meet the demands of the market. Incubators offer a variety of specialized services to help startups increase the chances of crossing the valley of death. These services include infrastructure, access to a professional network of mentors and an intensive support of a consultant team to help with managerial and legal challenges. Therefore, it is critical to incubators to develop both highly skilled teams of consultants and social environment that facilitates communication. The purpose of this paper is to understand how innovation-oriented social networks created within technology-based incubators are shaped.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected in five incubators participating connected to federal universities from the state of Minas Gerais. The network attributes collected in the survey were placed in a matrix form. The mapping and measurement of the relationships between individuals were developed using the Ucinet software. Ucinet enables the analysis of attributes (attitudes, behaviors and characteristics) characterized as relational (contacts, ties and relationships). The software also includes the Netdraw network visualization tool, which enables the creation of matrices and graphical network maps. The measurements of centrality, closeness and intermediation were analyzed to assess the intra-organizational social network.
Findings
The results indicate that although the flow of communication does not follow the formal hierarchy, the interaction between team members to spontaneously exchange ideas, information and experiences is rare. The workers are so concerned about their timely tasks, that they have few opportunities to exchange information and knowledge. The coordination is carried out by university professors, who also perform other tasks (e.g. teaching, research and administration activities) besides those related to the incubators. The results also suggest that in the technology-based incubators studied, besides dealing in an innovative environment, the distribution of tasks and responsibilities are still rigid and traditional.
Originality/value
By analyzing the degree of the relationship between team members, the proximity and the level of intermediation of co-workers, it is possible to see how the incubators workers interact, thereby identifying the flow of information. This study offers implications for theory and practice. To the theory, this study adds to the discussion of intra-organizational social network of technology-based companies in the Brazilian context. To practitioners, this research sheds light on the importance of the social network built within the organization to promote effective communication and knowledge sharing.
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Laura Maran and Alan Lowe
This paper reports an investigation of a hybrid ex-state-owned enterprise (ex-SOE) providing ICT (Information and Communication Technology) services in the Italian healthcare…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper reports an investigation of a hybrid ex-state-owned enterprise (ex-SOE) providing ICT (Information and Communication Technology) services in the Italian healthcare sector (in-house provision). The authors aim to offer a framing that reflects the concerns expressed in the interdisciplinary literature on hybrid SOEs from management, public administration and, more recently, accounting.
Design/methodology/approach
This study operationalizes Besharov and Smith’s (2014) theoretical model on multiple logics to analyze institutional structures and organizational outcomes at an ICT in-house provider. It builds on extensive textual analysis of regulatory, archival, survey and interview data.
Findings
The study results show that the combination of hybridity in the form of layering of multiple logics in the health care sector (Polzer et al., 2016) creates problems for the effectiveness of ICT provision. In particular, the hybrid organization the authors study remained stuck in established competing relationships despite a restructure of regional health care governance. The study findings also reflect on the design of organizational control mechanisms when balancing different logics.
Research limitations/implications
The identified case-study accountability practices and performance system add to the debate on hybrid organizations in the case of ex-SOEs and facilitate the understanding and management of hybrids in the public sector. The authors note policymaking implications.
Originality/value
The authors’ operationalization of Besharov and Smith's (2014) model adds clarity to key elements of their model, notably how to identify evidence in order to disentangle notions of centrality and compatibility. By doing this, the authors’ analysis offers potential insights into both managerial design and policy prescription. The authors provide cautionary tales around institutional reorganization regarding the layered synthesis of logics within these organizations.
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Hairul Suhaimi Nahar and Hisham Yaacob
The concept of accountability has long been argued in the academic and public policy debate to have been contextually ingrained in the technical processes of accounting and…
Abstract
Purpose
The concept of accountability has long been argued in the academic and public policy debate to have been contextually ingrained in the technical processes of accounting and reporting. Both processes provide lenses through which the extent of managerial accountability in the corporate context could be objectively examined. The sacred religion of Islam as a social order with a complete code of life classifies accountability as being dual; in line with the duality concept in life – in this temporal world and eternal hereafter, necessitating for accountability concept in accounting and reporting from the Islamic worldview to transcend beyond the point of worldly objectives. Parallel to this line of reasoning, the purpose of this paper is to undertake a preliminary empirical investigation with respect to accounting, reporting and accountability practices of a Malaysian cash awqaf (Islamic endowment) management institution over a six‐year period, from 2000 to 2005.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses triangulation research approach, consisting of case study method and archival documentation review and analysis.
Findings
The preliminary findings indicate that, while the root of accountability in the management, accounting and reporting practices seems to exist in the awqaf entity studied, significant improvements remain necessary to ensure accountability could be continuously enhanced and uphold.
Originality/value
Debating accountability concept in the context of management, accounting and reporting as practiced by faith‐based institution of awqaf from the Islamic perspective inevitably directs this study to highlight the notion of Islamic accounting and reporting commonly and extensively discussed in the realm of Islamic finance and banking. The study's conjecture is that, by debunking the myth of Islamic accounting and reporting as only serving the acute domain of transactions reflecting the Islamic financial products in banking environment, it helps to reshape, broaden and emphasize the all encompassing relevance of Islamic accounting and reporting to that of not‐for‐profits, religiously grounded entities such as awqaf institutions. The study further contributes to the accountability and financial reporting literature in Islamic not‐for‐profit organizations by studying the importance of sound accounting practices and reporting transparency in ensuring accountability.
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The research outlined in this paper highlights the importance of certain factors related to primary health care buildings’ physical environment, such as the facility size, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The research outlined in this paper highlights the importance of certain factors related to primary health care buildings’ physical environment, such as the facility size, the functional efficiency, and the health planning of public areas in the health centers to improve the architectural space of health facilities.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was performed using a mixed method. Data collection was carried out through observational research and descriptive analysis in six primary health care facilities in Salvador and Lauro de Freitas, Brazil.
Findings
Based on this study’s results, facility capacity, functional efficiency and space accessibility have been considered the facilities’ main problems in the investigated context. The impact of the users’ perspective on healthcare facilities was assessed for each of these three criteria to verify the results obtained. Furthermore, most of the parameters were not satisfied, as the buildings analyzed had defects in their physical environment. Therefore, it is necessary to review and pay more attention to the architecture of these cities’ primary health care units.
Originality/value
The present study addresses the architectural environment design in Brazil’s healthcare facilities, which still have gaps. Improving the physical space of a health center ensures that the approach used in this research also applies to other health centers in similar contexts. The awareness that space’s activities and configurations will change according to each territory examined will open up so many investigation worlds.
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James P. Spillane, Eric M. Camburn, James Pustejovsky, Amber Stitziel Pareja and Geoff Lewis
This paper is concerned with the epistemological and methodological challenges involved in studying the distribution of leadership across people within the school – the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is concerned with the epistemological and methodological challenges involved in studying the distribution of leadership across people within the school – the leader‐plus aspect of a distributed perspective, which it aims to investigate.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines the entailments of the distributed perspective for collecting and analyzing data on school leadership and management. It considers four different operationalizations of the leader‐plus aspect of the distributed perspective and examines the results obtained from these different operationalizations. The research reported in this paper is part of a larger study, an efficacy trial of a professional development program intended to prepare principals to improve their practice. The study involved a mixed method design. For the purpose of this paper a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, including an experience sampling method (ESM) principal log, a principal questionnaire (PQ), and a school staff questionnaire (SSQ) was used.
Findings
While acknowledging broad similarities among the various approaches, the different approaches also surfaced some divergence that has implications for thinking about the epistemological and methodological challenges in measuring leadership from a distributed perspective. Approaches that focus on the lived organization as distinct from the designed organization, for example, unearth the role of individuals with no formal leadership designations in leading and managing the school.
Research limitations/implications
Limited by the data set, the paper focuses on only four operationalizations of the leader plus aspect of the distributed perspective rather than taking a more comprehensive look at how the leader plus aspect might be operationalized.
Originality/value
The primary value of this paper is that it will prompt scholars to think about the entailments of different ways of operationalizing the leader plus aspect when using a distributed perspective.
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