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1 – 10 of 206Brenda Nansubuga and Christian Kowalkowski
Following the recent surge in research on carsharing, the paper synthesizes this growing literature to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state of research and…
Abstract
Purpose
Following the recent surge in research on carsharing, the paper synthesizes this growing literature to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state of research and to identify directions for future work. Specifically, this study details implications for service theory and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Systematic selection and analysis of 279 papers from the existing literature, published between 1996 and 2020.
Findings
The literature review identified four key themes: business models, drivers and barriers, customer behavior, and vehicle balancing.
Practical implications
For managers, the study illuminates the importance of collaboration among stakeholders within the automotive sector for purposes of widening their customer base and maximizing utilization and profits. For policy makers, their important role in supporting carsharing take-off is highlighted with emphasis on balancing support rendered to different mobility services to promote mutual success.
Originality/value
This is the first systematic multi-disciplinary literature review of carsharing. It integrates insights from transportation, environmental, and business studies, identifying gaps in the existing research and specifically suggesting implications for service research.
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Assem Abu Hatab and Yves Surry
A better understanding of the determinants of demand through accurate estimates of the elasticity of import demand can help policymakers and exporters improve their market access…
Abstract
Purpose
A better understanding of the determinants of demand through accurate estimates of the elasticity of import demand can help policymakers and exporters improve their market access and competitiveness. This study analyzed the EU's demand for imported potato from major suppliers between 1994 and 2018, with the aim to evaluate the competitiveness of Egyptian potato.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted an import-differentiated framework to investigate demand relationships among the major potato suppliers to the EU's. To evaluate the competitiveness of Egyptian potato on the EU market, expenditure and price demand elasticities for various suppliers were calculated and compared.
Findings
The empirical results indicated that as income allocation of fresh potatoes increases, the investigated EU markets import more potatoes from other suppliers compared to imports from Egypt. The results show that EU importers may switch to potato imports from other suppliers as the import price of Egyptian potatoes increases, which enter the EU markets before domestically produced potatoes are harvested.
Research limitations/implications
Due to data unavailability, the present study relied on yearly data on quantities and prices of EU potato imports. A higher frequency of observations should allow for considering seasonal effects, and thereby providing a more transparent picture of market dynamics and demand behavior of EU countries with respect to potato import from various sources of origin.
Originality/value
The study used a system-wide and source differentiated approach to analyze import demand. In particular, the empirical approach allowed for comparing different demand models (AIDS, Rotterdam, NBR and CBS) to filter out the superior and most suitable model for that data because the suitability and performance of a demand model depends rather on data than on universal criteria.
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Mohsen Anvari, Alireza Anvari and Omid Boyer
This paper aims to examine the integration of lateral transshipment and road vulnerability into the humanitarian relief chain in light of affected area priority to address…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the integration of lateral transshipment and road vulnerability into the humanitarian relief chain in light of affected area priority to address equitable distribution and assess the impact of various parameters on the total average inflated distance traveled per relief item.
Design/methodology/approach
After identifying comprehensive critical criteria and subcriteria, a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making framework was applied to obtain the demand points’ weight and ranking in a real-life earthquake scenario. Direct shipment and lateral transshipment models were then presented and compared. The developed mathematical models are formulated as mixed-integer programming models, considering facility location, inventory prepositioning, road vulnerability and quantity of lateral transshipment.
Findings
The study found that the use of prioritization criteria and subcriteria, in conjunction with lateral transshipment and road vulnerability, resulted in a more equitable distribution of relief items by reducing the total average inflated distance traveled per relief item.
Research limitations/implications
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first research on equity in humanitarian response through prioritization of demand points. It also bridges the gap between two areas that are typically treated separately: multi-criteria decision-making and humanitarian logistics.
Practical implications
This is the first scholarly work in Shiraz focused on the equitable distribution system by prioritization of demand points and assigning relief items to them after the occurrence of a medium-scale earthquake scenario considering lateral transshipment in the upper echelon.
Originality/value
The paper clarifies how to prioritize demand points to promote equity in humanitarian logistics when the authors have faced multiple factors (i.e. location of relief distribution centers, inventory level, distance, lateral transshipment and road vulnerability) simultaneously.
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Jamie Stone and Shahin Rahimifard
Resilience in agri-food supply chains (AFSCs) is an area of significant importance due to growing supply chain volatility. While the majority of research exploring supply chain…
Abstract
Purpose
Resilience in agri-food supply chains (AFSCs) is an area of significant importance due to growing supply chain volatility. While the majority of research exploring supply chain resilience has originated from a supply chain management perspective, many other disciplines (such as environmental systems science and the social sciences) have also explored the topic. As complex social, economic and environmental constructs, the priority of resilience in AFSCs goes far beyond the company specific focus of supply chain management works and would conceivably benefit from including more diverse academic disciplines. However, this is hindered by inconsistencies in terminology and the conceptual components of resilience across different disciplines. The purpose of this study is to use a systematic literature review to identify which multidisciplinary aspects of resilience are applicable to AFSCs and to generate a novel AFSC resilience framework.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a structured and multidisciplinary review of 137 articles in the resilience literature followed by critical analysis and synthesis of findings to generate new knowledge in the form of a novel AFSC resilience framework.
Findings
Findings indicate that the complexity of AFSCs and subsequent exposure to almost constant external interference means that disruptions cannot be seen as a one-off event; thus, resilience must concern the ability to not only maintain core function but also adapt to changing conditions.
Practical implications
A number of resilience elements can be used to enhance resilience, but their selection and implementation must be carefully matched to relevant phases of disruption and assessed on their broader supply chain impacts. In particular, the focus must be on overall impact on the ability of the supply chain as a whole to provide food security rather than to boost individual company performance.
Originality/value
The research novelty lies in the utilisation of wider understandings of resilience from various research fields to propose a rigorous and food-specific resilience framework with end consumer food security as its main focus.
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Faharuddin Faharuddin, M. Yamin, Andy Mulyana and Y. Yunita
Using cross-sectional household survey data, this paper aims to determine the impact of food price increases on poverty in Indonesia.
Abstract
Purpose
Using cross-sectional household survey data, this paper aims to determine the impact of food price increases on poverty in Indonesia.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses the quadratic almost ideal demand system applied to the 2013 Indonesian household survey data. The impact of food price increase on household welfare is calculated using a welfare measure, compensating variation.
Findings
Three food groups with the most outstanding price impact on poverty, rice, vegetables and fish, were studied. The 20% increase in the price of each food group causes an increase in the headcount ratio by 1.360 points (rice), 0.737 points (vegetables) and 0.636 points (fish). Maintaining food price stability for these food groups is very important because the more the price increases, the more the impact on poverty. Food price policies in rural areas are also more critical than in urban areas because the impact of food price increases in rural areas is higher.
Research limitations/implications
This paper does not consider the positive impact of rising food prices on food-producing households.
Practical implications
Implementing appropriate poverty alleviation policies through food policies for main food groups and social protection.
Social implications
Promoting rural development policies and agricultural growth.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical results regarding the impact of domestic food prices increase on poverty in Indonesia.
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Adrian Fernando Rivera, Neale R. Smith and Angel Ruiz
Food banks play an increasingly important role in society by mitigating hunger and helping needy people; however, research aimed at improving food bank operations is limited.
Abstract
Purpose
Food banks play an increasingly important role in society by mitigating hunger and helping needy people; however, research aimed at improving food bank operations is limited.
Design/methodology/approach
This systematic review used Web of Science and Scopus as search engines, which are extensive databases in Operations Research and Management Science. Ninety-five articles regarding food bank operations were deeply analyzed to contribute to this literature review.
Findings
Through a systematic literature review, this paper identifies the challenges faced by food banks from an operations management perspective and positions the scientific contributions proposed to address these challenges.
Originality/value
This study makes three main contributions to the current literature. First, this study provides new researchers with an overview of the key features of food bank operations. Second, this study identifies and classifies the proposed optimization models to support food bank managers with decision-making. Finally, this study discusses the challenges of food bank operations and proposes promising future research avenues.
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Virpi Ala-Heikkilä and Marko Järvenpää
This study aims to take a step toward integrating research regarding the image, role and identity of management accountants by understanding how employers’ perceptions of the ideal…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to take a step toward integrating research regarding the image, role and identity of management accountants by understanding how employers’ perceptions of the ideal management accountant image differ from operational managers’ perceived role expectations, how management accountants perceive their identity and how those factors shape management accountants’ understanding of who they are and want to be.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative design draws upon the case company’s 100 job advertisements and 31 semi-structured interviews with management accountants and operational managers. Those data are entwined with role theory and its core concepts of expectations and identities and also early recruitment-related theoretical aspects such as image and employer branding.
Findings
The findings reveal how employers’ perceptions of the ideal image and operational managers’ role expectations shape and influence the identity of management accountants. However, management accountants distance themselves from a brand image and role expectations. They experience identity conflict between their current and desired identity, the perception of not being able to perform the currently desired role. Although this study presents some possible reasons and explanations, such as employer branding for the misalignment and discrepancy between perceptions of employer (image), expectations of operational managers (role) and management accountants’ self-conception of the role (identity), this study argues that the identity of a management accountant results from organizational aspects of image and role and individual aspects of identity.
Research limitations/implications
Image and external role expectations can challenge identity construction and also serve as a source of conflict and frustration; thus, a more comprehensive approach to studying the identity of management accountants is necessary to understand what contributes to the fragility of their identity.
Practical implications
The results provide an understanding of the dynamics of the image, role and identity to support management accountants and employers and to further address the suggested dissonance and ambiguities.
Originality/value
This study contributes by showing how the dynamics and connections between the image, role and identity influence the identity construction of management accountants. Moreover, this study shows how overpromising as a part of employer branding might not reflect the reality experienced by management accountants but may cause frustration and threaten the management accountants’ identity.
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Sinikka Lepistö, Justyna Dobroszek, Lauri Lepistö and Ewelina Zarzycka
This paper aims to explore controls within an inter-organisational relationship involving outsourced management accounting services from the contractor’s perspective.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore controls within an inter-organisational relationship involving outsourced management accounting services from the contractor’s perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative data from within the relationship are analysed in a legitimacy-theory framework, illustrating how controls within the relationship are intended to build the contractor’s legitimacy and what kinds of implications the controls have in relation to conflicts between interests inherent in the relationship.
Findings
The legitimacy perspective clarifies that while controls are aimed at ensuring efficiency for the client, they may also provide symbolic displays of the appropriateness of the contractor’s actions both at an inter-organisational level for the client and at an individual level for the contractor’s employees. While the contractor intends to build legitimacy with the client by demonstrating utility in the form of efficiency, the process also gives the client influence and allows the disposition in terms of shared values to be demonstrated. However, this process has some negative consequences for the contractor’s employees as it is insufficient for serving the boundary-spanning employees’ interests connected with the nature of their work. Hence, the same controls need to yield benefits and fair outcomes for employees. The controls simultaneously foster interconnections that contribute to permanence and formalise the outsourcing of complex services, thereby rendering such processes comprehensible and transferable to other settings, which can be seen to serve the contractor’s continuity interests.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to academic research by illustrating how controls within inter-organisational relationships not only steer boundary-spanners’ work to conform to a client’s needs but may also help to build legitimacy via symbolic properties in the presence of conflicting interests at both an inter-organisational and individual level. It specifically highlights the important role of boundary-spanners lower in the organisational structure, who both affect and are influenced by the intentions to build legitimacy with the client.
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