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1 – 10 of 117Vision guided robotics (VGR) is a fast growing technology and a way to reduce manpower and retain production, especially in countries with high manufacturing overheads and…
Abstract
Purpose
Vision guided robotics (VGR) is a fast growing technology and a way to reduce manpower and retain production, especially in countries with high manufacturing overheads and labour costs. This paper aims to provide information on a new VGR system.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper describes the new automation system of the Swedish company SVIA.
Findings
Shows that the need to position components to a set pick‐up position is eliminated – the vision system determining the position of randomly fed products by a recycling conveyor system. The vision system and control software gives the robot exact coordinates of the components, which are spread out randomly beneath the camera field of vision, enabling the robot arm to move to a selected component and pick from the conveyor belt.
Originality/value
Describes how the modules are easy to utilise when products or production lines change.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to examine the impact of public scrutiny on chief executive officer (CEO) compensation at Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 firms.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the impact of public scrutiny on chief executive officer (CEO) compensation at Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 firms.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses the unique opportunity provided by the 2008 financial crisis and, in particular, government support and legislated compensation restrictions in the US Department of the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). It aggregates monetary and non-monetary executive compensation information from 2006 to 2012, with firm- and manager-level data. It presents univariate summary compensation results and uses multivariate regression analysis to isolate the impact of public scrutiny and legislated compensation restrictions on executive pay.
Findings
Overall, the results are consistent, with increased public scrutiny having a lasting impact on perks and temporary impact on wage and legislated compensation restrictions having a temporary impact on wage. Changes in specific perk items provide evidence on which perks firms perceive as excessive and which provide common value.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the discussion of perks as excess by introducing a novel data set of perk compensation at S&P500 firms and by studying how firms choose to alter levels of specific perk items in response to increased public scrutiny and legislated compensation restrictions. The paper contributes to the literature on executive pay as there has been little inquiry into the impact of public scrutiny on compensation. Public scrutiny could be an important source of external governance if firms change behavior in response to explicit and implicit scrutiny costs.
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Nafez Abu‐Baker and Kanial Naser
This study provides empirical evidence on corporate social disclosure practices in a sample of 143 companies. Chosen from four different industry groupings, these…
Abstract
This study provides empirical evidence on corporate social disclosure practices in a sample of 143 companies. Chosen from four different industry groupings, these companies form 83% of the total population of companies listed on the Amman Financial Market. The results of the analysis reveal that CSD received modest attention from most surveyed companies in terms of space devoted and subjects covered in such disclosure in the annual reports. There is a limited number, however, of Jordanian companies operating in the banking and manufacturing sectors which have articulated their CSD responsibilities in a convincing manner. The themes most commonly disclosed across the four industry groupings were human resources and community involvement. Environmental disclosure needs much more attention by the Jordanian shareholding companies. Significant differences among various industry groupings were, on the other hand, noted with respect to the amounts, methods and locations of CSD in the annual reports of the sampled companies.
Matthias Kiefer, Edward A.E. Jones and Andrew T. Adams
Shareholders and managers can work in a hierarchy in which principals attempt to control the actions of agents to achieve the wealth objective. Alternatively, shareholders…
Abstract
Purpose
Shareholders and managers can work in a hierarchy in which principals attempt to control the actions of agents to achieve the wealth objective. Alternatively, shareholders and managers can work together as a cooperative team in which shareholders provide financial capital and managers provide human capital. The authors aim to examine the different implications for value creation provided by the two approaches.
Design/methodology/approach
By comparing the literature on the value implications of the incomplete contracting framework and control arrangements in principal-agent hierarchies, the authors identify deviations from optimal outcomes and suggest solutions.
Findings
The review indicates that a cooperative framework has some advantages over the hierarchical model. The stability of human capital and the relationship between managers and shareholders can be enhanced when shareholders provide capital in increments which vest over time and latitude for renegotiation of agreements is built into contracts.
Practical implications
By surrendering control using stock options programmes, managers are free to invest in relationship-specific assets. Shareholders can control the provision of capital by withdrawing investment if insufficient returns are realized, i.e. if stock options do not meet vesting requirements. The market can then be left to do its work.
Originality/value
This paper provides an original review of literature on cooperation and hierarchies in the shareholder–manager relationship and proposes solutions to identified deviations from optimal outcomes.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide a foundation for future research pertaining to establishing the distinctness of the sport industry from an employee psychology perspective.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a foundation for future research pertaining to establishing the distinctness of the sport industry from an employee psychology perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper is rooted in social identity theory which maintains that certain levels of self‐esteem and psychological fulfillment can be derived from one's membership in particular groups. The authors have developed a model of positive social identity in sport organizations that details the benefits and consequences of psychological fulfillment related to employment in the sport industry.
Findings
Within the proposed model, the paper outlines how particular elements of social identity derived from one's employment in sport may play an active role in particular job attitudes by enhancing the employee's self‐esteem and contributing to overall self‐evaluation. It further explains how social identity in the workplace may influence individual outcomes such as organizational citizenship, commitment, satisfaction, and job involvement, depending on the strength of the attitude. The elements of the model are explored and future research directions are given.
Originality/value
A key question to be addressed is whether or not sport is a distinct context within which to apply management theory. This paper proposes a conceptual model and research agenda surrounding the idea that one critical area of distinction may be the psychology of employees.
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This paper aims to explore the intersection of disability and accounting employment.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the intersection of disability and accounting employment.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses oral history accounts of 12 disabled accountants. The authors investigate narrators' experiences of being disabled people and professional accountants, identify the barriers they encounter in professional employment, and how they (re)negotiate professional work.
Findings
The narrators' accounts are complex and diverse. The narratives record a discourse of success, offset by the consistent identification of social and environmental barriers relating to limited opportunities, resources, and support.
Originality/value
The paper develops the limited research on the relationship between disability and the accounting profession, expands the limited literature on disabled professionals' experience of work, provides voice for disabled accountants, adds to the limited oral histories available within accounting, and augments the accumulated literature considering the accounting profession and minorities.
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FR. Oswald A. J. Mascarenhas, S.J.
When FECS spins out of human intervention and regulatory control, then it can easily harm and constrain the markets as it happened on Black Friday of October 1929…
Abstract
Executive Summary
When FECS spins out of human intervention and regulatory control, then it can easily harm and constrain the markets as it happened on Black Friday of October 1929, resulting in the Great Depression, and the September–October 2008 Financial Crisis, when some 17 mega global investment banks ran out of control and lost close to trillion US dollars in market capitalization. This chapter defines, analyzes, classifies, and morally assesses occupational and corporate fraud, corruption and money-laundering, and their other evil forms. When we allow our choices to be driven by passion, choosing thereby to ignore or fail to investigate outcomes, the results are too often flawed and unintended, as the cases of Lehman Brothers, AIG, Freddie Mac, and Fannie May that collapsed around September–October 2008 would attest. While we should condemn abuses within the FECS, one can also seek to understand the origins and originating systems of fraud, corruption, and various forms of deceptions and chicanery, and search for remedial strategies for eradicating these ills of FECS. Several contemporary market cases of fraud, corruption, and bribery will be identified to illustrate the contents of this chapter.
You can't help but be impressed by John White‐head's resume. There's his 38‐year climb up Goldman, Sachs & Co., to the position of co‐chairman. Then there's his three‐year…
Abstract
You can't help but be impressed by John White‐head's resume. There's his 38‐year climb up Goldman, Sachs & Co., to the position of co‐chairman. Then there's his three‐year post as deputy secretary of state for the Reagan administration, along with his current position, chairman of AEA Investors in New York. But what's really striking about Whitehead's resume is the lengthy list of volunteer organizations on which he serves. Currently the chairman of 10 nonprofit boards—including the United Nations Association, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Asia Society, Youth for Understanding, and the Greater New York Councils/Boy Scouts of America—and a trustee of numerous others, Whitehead has been described as the consummate nonprofit board member.
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This…
Abstract
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.
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Andrew Glover, Yolande Strengers and Tania Lewis
Air travel is becoming increasingly recognized as a source of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change. This is particularly relevant for the university…
Abstract
Purpose
Air travel is becoming increasingly recognized as a source of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change. This is particularly relevant for the university sector, which relies heavily on staff air travel for domestic and international mobility.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a qualitative content and textual analysis of Australian university sustainability policies, documents and Web pages, this paper discusses the extent to which these organizations take the task of reducing emissions from flying seriously.
Findings
Universities fall into one of three groups in this regard. “Air Travel Ignorers” are organizations that either have no sustainability policy or none that recognize air travel as a source of greenhouse gas emissions. The second group – “Recognition without Intervention” – describes universities that do acknowledge the role of air travel in their carbon footprint, but do not propose any means to reduce the amount of flying they do. Third, “Air Travel Substituters” seek to substitute their air travel with a digital form of mobility, usually video conferencing.
Research limitations/implications
The authors then highlight the need to decrease and denormalize university air travel through shifting shared expectations of mobility for events such as conferences and meetings.
Practical implications
By way of a conclusion, the authors discuss the nature of air travel for Australian academia and the relationship between various forms of mobility, connectedness and co-presence.
Originality/value
This is the first comprehensive analysis of Australian university sustainability policies with respect to air travel.
Details