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This study was undertaken in order to show how talent management (TM) was performed in practice in a multinational organization as well as how the TM practices affected both different groups of workers and the perception of talent within the organization.

Performing talent management was reassessed in the relationship between TM practices, view and identification of talent, attributed positioning and self-positioning of older and younger workers; retrieved from an exploratory single case study in a multinational organization, based on interviews.

The findings illustrate that despite the struggling to fill key positions with skilled workers, the studied organization adopted approaches to TM that excluded older workers' talent. First, central to performing TM was how talent was viewed and identified, and second, two types of positioning acts were important: the organizations (re)producing of talent management through attributive positioning acts on older/younger workers and older workers' self-positioning of their own talent. The two sides of performing talent management were complex and intertwined resulting in an age-based devaluation of talent at work.

The study points to important issues in designing and performing TM that may be useful to HR and managers as a point of departure in the development of more inclusive approaches to TM.

The concept “performing talent management” was developed as an intertwined relationship between on-going positioning acts and (re)production of status, talent and age at work; recognizing preferences of what was viewed and identified as valued talent as main drivers made it possible to develop an understanding of exclusion and inclusion mechanisms in performing TM.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and theoretically explain how line managers and lower-status experts work together in public health-care organizations. Hence, this study explores how lower-status experts influence line managers' decision-making and task prioritizing in order to guide staff experts' cooperation and performance improvements.

The authors used a qualitative method for data collection and analysis of the experts' and line managers' explanations about their cooperation. A theoretical approach of experts' identity positioning, in terms of differences and similarities, was used in analyzing the interaction between managers and experts.

This study shows that similarities and differences in positioning acts exist simultaneously. Similarity is constructed by way of strategic and professional alignment with the line managers' core tasks. Differences stem from the distinction between knowledge-grounded skills and professional attributes such as language, analytical tools, and jargon. Lower-status experts need to leave their entrenched positions and match the professional status of line managers in both knowledge aspirations and appearance to reach a respected approach of experts' identity positioning.

Unlike many previous studies, this study demonstrates that similarities and differences in positioning acts exist simultaneously.

This purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which one occupational group used boundary work to increase their influence and power with more influential occupational groups in a medical setting.

A qualitative interview study is used to investigate an occupational group (hospital dieticians) as it tried to increase its influence in a setting of established occupational groups. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with dieticians and managers at a university hospital, and by the examination of selected hospital documents.

This study concludes that the dieticians' boundary work to become more influential in a setting of established groups was characterized by their boundary setting actions as inner dialogue and their boundary spanning actions as outer dialogue. In the inner dialogue, the dieticians established a professional group and a vocabulary for the continuous communication of their unique competence that could relate to the existing medical knowledge. In the outer dialogue, the dieticians structured and made sense of their setting by the labelling of roles as power entities and by using self‐images and metaphors.

This research was designed to describe the dieticians' efforts and experiences in the studied setting. Therefore, the data provide access to one occupational group but not to the other groups in that setting. A second limitation is the absence of observations.

This research contributes to the knowledge of the relevance of practitioners involved in boundary work aimed at improving professional collaboration. The study is helpful in identifying important boundaries that facilitate the establishment of collaborative relationships, and the development of accounts, procedures and routines.

The research focuses on how influence on practice is constituted through boundary work.

As a result of a plethora of scholarly articles by feminist scholars of entrepreneurship, it is now widely accepted that the notion of entrepreneurship is ideologically skewed towards masculine ideology. Although this body of work has been quietly acknowledged, it has not invoked a reply, or refutation, from male entrepreneurship scholars. Nor has it led to an increase in studies about the influence of masculinity on entrepreneurial behaviour or identity. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to begin to address this by analysing an alternative social construction of entrepreneurship relating to how masculinity influences entrepreneurial identity in print. The data used are text from the thinly veiled biographical novel Cityboy written in an aggressive and unashamedly masculine style. Whilst the focus is not upon entrepreneurs per se, it is upon the male‐oriented entrepreneurial institution that is the “city.”

The methodological approach used in this paper is that of biographical analysis; supported by a supplementary analysis of similar biographies of traders; this is triangulated by photographs downloaded from the internet. This approach allows rich data to be collected from practical sources permitting a comparative approach to be adopted. The approach has obvious limitations but is a practical method.

The results from this empirical study are tentative but illustrate that the socially constructed nature of the “city trader” as an entrepreneurial identity is portrayed as being a manly pursuit; and how such discrimination is inherent within an institutionalised systemic behaviour in which men are encouraged to be risk‐takers and players. This institutionalised “boyish” behaviour is used to build up a masculine identity rooted in Thatcherite enterprise culture. Although no clear conclusion can be articulated because of the subjective nature of the interpretation, links with accepted entrepreneurship theory are drawn. It is thus an exploratory study into the pervasiveness of masculine doxa in constructing entrepreneurial identity. The paper makes an incremental contribution by acknowledging the power of male dominance in shaping entrepreneurial realities albeit the conclusions are mainly drawn from one book.

This paper opens up the field for further studies of skewed masculine entrepreneurial identities under the rubric of the “bad boy entrepreneur.”

In critically discussing and acknowledging the male genderedness of entrepreneurial identity in a particular system, this paper makes a contribution to the understanding of the socially constructed nature of how to tell, understand and appreciate stories which present an entrepreneurial identity. Granted the hero of the story is fictional but the overlaps with the accepted storylines of entrepreneur stories are illuminating. The paper provides another heuristic device for understanding the social construction of gendered entrepreneurial identities, making it of interest to feminist scholars of entrepreneurship and to social constructionists alike.

This study aims to develop and empirically test a model examining the antecedents of consumer loyalty toward internet portals.

The data were collected based on an internet survey in Taiwan. Self‐administered questionnaires were used for all measures.

The results show that attributive satisfaction is very important in affecting consumers' overall satisfaction toward an internet portal, which in turn affects consumers' loyalty intention toward an internet portal. This study also demonstrates that consumers' specific asset investment on an internet portal exerted a positive impact on loyalty intention, whereas perceived opportunism toward an internet portal exerted a negative influence on loyalty intention.

This study contributes to the e‐commerce service studies in two ways. First, it developed and empirically tested a model for examining the antecedents of consumer loyalty intentions toward an internet portal. Second, it incorporated the concept of transaction cost (i.e. opportunism and asset specificity) into the model and examined the effect on the formation of loyalty intention. This inclusion also improved the theoretical foundation of loyalty formation in an internet‐connected service world.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of image congruence between sport events and their hosts as perceived by sport tourists on future visits to the destination, respectively the sport event.

In order to measure image congruence an indirect, multi‐attributive measure was chosen – using a self‐administered questionnaire distributed to sport tourists at six different sport events in Germany – so as to be able to investigate the two images first separately and second to construct an independent fit measure using the absolute differences of corresponding items. Logistic regression analyses evaluated dependencies between image congruence, location components and socio‐demographic aspects on behavioural intentions.

The results show that the overall models are significant and that certain elements such as the affinity of atmosphere do play a central role in predicting future visits.

A research limitation could arise due to the sample because almost all sport tourists were German. A more international sample might have shown different results. Future research should analyse samples of different sports concluding whether the sport performed influences behaviour, too.

Some practical implications with respect to the kind of appeal towards sport tourists are given.

This paper shows that not only separated images affect future behaviour but that the perceived fit between two actually distinct images influences behaviour as well.

The relation of material design and textile science to the technologies of textile specialty products are discussed. Concept of material design is explained. The method of differential total material design is presented with an application example. The relation of material design to specialty textiles technology is analyzed. The relation of textile science to material design in terms of specialty textiles technology is also discussed. Some examples of scientific knowledge in terms of data base for material design are presented.

Selecting the most appropriate healthcare waste treatment technology (HCWTT) is an uncertain and complex decision-making problem because there exist more than one alternative and many conflicting qualitative and quantitative criteria. However, the use of fuzzy and comparative values, instead of specific crisp values, provides more accurate results, so that the alternatives may be evaluated in accordance with hesitant human nature. The purpose of this paper is to select the best HCWTT using a hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (HFLTS).

Five main criteria were identified for HCWTT selection, such as economic, social, environmental, technical and ergonomic criteria. In total, 19 sub-criteria were examined, and the hierarchy of the criteria was formed. The criteria weights were determined using the multi-criteria hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (MC-HFLTS). The selection processes of incineration (A₁), steam sterilization (A₂), microwave (A₃) and landfill (A₄) alternatives were carried out using the multi-attributive ideal-real comparative analysis (MAIRCA) and multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) methods. In the comparative analyses, Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) and technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods were used.

The comparison of the results of the MABAC and MAIRCA methods with the results of VIKOR and TOPSIS methods indicated that A₂ (steam sterilization) alternative was the best one and produced the same ranking of the technology alternatives (A₂ > A₃ > A₁ > A₄). As a result, the study concluded that these methods can be successfully used for HCWTT selection problems.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, MC-HFLTS has not been used to select HCWTT in the existing literature. For the first time, MC-HFLTS&MAIRCA and MC-HFLTS&MABAC approaches were used in order to choose the best treatment method for healthcare waste under the effect of multiple conflicting hierarchical criteria. It has been provided that MABAC and MAIRCA select alternative choices by taking into consideration the hierarchical criteria. Unlike other studies, this study also considered ergonomic criteria that are important for people working during the process of using the treatment technology.

Due to several unique characteristics, such as high tensile strength, low extensibility, high frictional resistance, biodegradability, eco-friendliness and cheapness, Jute ranks second just after cotton with respect to its worldwide consumption and production. To overcome the difficulties of the existing Jute grading procedure, this paper aims to focus on the application of decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) methods for evaluation of 10 Tossa Jute fiber lots based on strength, defects, root content, color, fineness and bulk density properties.

The DEMATEL method divides all the six physical properties of Jute fiber into cause and effect groups. The most influencing property is also identified. On the other hand, the considered Jute fiber lots are ranked using MABAC method along with the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of each of them.

This combined approach would provide a more scientific and realistic way of Jute grading and evaluation based on various properties of the considered Jute fiber lots. The positions of the superior and the inferior Jute lots perfectly match with those as identified by the earlier researchers.

It is concluded that the adopted combined decision-making tool can be effectively applied for grading and evaluation of other natural fibers with diverse heterogeneous physical properties.

Supply chain (SC) environment is surrounded by risk variables. This issue is regarded as an emerging and strategic problem which must be resolved by SC executives. The ability to measuring green supplier’s performance and affecting risk variables to demonstrating effective suppliers list has a potential contribution to be investigated. This paper aims to develop a decision-making model to assess green suppliers under legislation and risk factors. This leads to fewer disruptions in managing the SC and its impact to further improvement. It also presents research concepts forming a new approach for identification, prediction and understating relationship of supply risk.

At primal stage, different risk factors that influence green suppliers’ performance are indicated and their relationship is analyzed using decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method. At the same time, failure mode and effect analysis is used to determine risk rating of each supplier. Finally, the evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS) method ranks suppliers and several comparisons and analysis are performed to test the stability of the results. The approaches include comparison to technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution, multi-attributive border approximation area comparison, Vlse Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje and complex proportional assessment methods, followed by analysis of rank reversal, weight sensitivity analysis and effect of dynamic metrics.

A real-time case study on green supplier selection (GSS) problem of a reputed construction company of Spain has been presented to demonstrate the practical aspects of the proposed method. In practice, though organizations are aware of various risks from local and global suppliers, it is difficult to incorporate these risk factors for ranking the suppliers. This real-case application shows the evaluation and incorporation of risk factors into the supplier selection model.

The proposed multi-criteria decision model quantitatively aids managers in selecting green suppliers considering risk factors.

A new model has been developed to present a sound mathematical model for solving GSS problems which considers the interaction between the supplier selection risk factors by proposing an integrated analytical approach for selecting green suppliers strategically consisting of DEMATEL, FMEA and EDAS methods.