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1 – 10 of over 79000Andrea Caputo, Raffaele Fiorentino and Stefano Garzella
The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the new capabilities that are required for the facilitation of business processes management (BPM) in the current political and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the new capabilities that are required for the facilitation of business processes management (BPM) in the current political and technological landscape. Specifically, the goal is to investigate the role of firm boundaries, from a business processes perspective, in new contexts in which the affirmation of digitalization requires more integration across a complex network of partners.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a review of relevant literature on BPM, firm boundaries and negotiation. By critically integrating this literature, a framework is developed with the objective of supporting the management of boundaries.
Findings
BPM, new competitive contexts, and the technological landscape require the development and management of boundary capabilities. Among these capabilities, “boundary management” – how managers coordinate resources, activities and business processes on the boundaries of the firm – should play a key role. Moreover, as managers must continuously interact with multiple partners in digital supply chains, the organizational model of negotiation serves as a means of effectively managing firm boundaries.
Practical implications
The framework offers insights and guidelines that can help practitioners manage the boundaries of business processes. The authors encourage a focus on business processes occurring at firm boundaries. Furthermore, the authors encourage the development of new capabilities in response to the needs of practitioners to ensure best practices of negotiation.
Originality/value
This study shifts the emphasis of BPM from the boundaries of management to the management of boundaries. By shedding light on new capabilities required, this paper enriches the BPM literature and can assist, on the one hand, in reconfiguring business processes in the new political and technological landscape and, on the other hand, in facilitating effective negotiation.
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The purpose of this paper is to advance a firm boundary perspective of operations strategy linking strategic management and business process management.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance a firm boundary perspective of operations strategy linking strategic management and business process management.
Design/methodology/approach
Relevant operations strategy, business process management and boundary perspective literature is reviewed and critically assessed in order to advance a firm boundary-based approach to operations strategy. Within this perspective, a multi-disciplinary and cross-functional framework is provided with the objective of supporting the process of operations strategy formulation and implementation.
Findings
The boundary perspective has the potential to inform a wide range of operations strategies. Strategic management of operations should be increasingly based on boundary operations. The proposed framework clarifies that the adoption of a spanning boundary perspective should improve the operations strategy process and content.
Practical implications
This paper offers implications of interest to managers, noting that the adoption of a new perspective in operations strategy should contribute to innovation in operations strategy development and implementation. Specifically, the framework suggests models and tools useful to support the spanning boundary perspective.
Originality/value
This paper allows operations and process management scholars to focus on key phenomena, such as boundary management. At the same time, the framework responds to the needs of managers who are engaged in operations management for a new perspective that can assist in the strategic management of operations.
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Regina Kempen, Kate Hattrup and Karsten Mueller
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of flexible and permeable boundary management with both life domain conflict and life domain enrichment among…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of flexible and permeable boundary management with both life domain conflict and life domain enrichment among expatriate workers.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilizes a sample of 199 expatriates working in a higher education context, and analyses survey data with hierarchical regression analysis and cluster analysis.
Findings
Relationships between the permeability and the flexibility of life domains, and work-private life conflict, private life-work conflict, and work-private life enrichment were found. However, no significant results were obtained for the relationship between boundary management and private life-work enrichment. Two clusters of boundary management used by expatriates are described.
Research limitations/implications
Due to cross-sectional data, causal influences cannot be determined with confidence.
Practical implications
The findings underscore the need to consider the role-related stakeholders of expatriates, especially in the private life domain. Implications for the support of expatriates based on the boundary management clusters are discussed.
Originality/value
This is the first study analysing boundary management distinguishing between flexibility and permeability in an expatriate context.
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Karlene Cousins and Daniel Robey
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role that mobile technologies play in mobile workers’ efforts to manage the boundaries between work and non-work domains. Previous…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role that mobile technologies play in mobile workers’ efforts to manage the boundaries between work and non-work domains. Previous theories of work-life boundary management frame boundary management strategies as a range between the segmentation and integration of work-life domains, but fail to provide a satisfactory account of technology’s role.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply the concept of affordances, defined as the relationship between users’ abilities and features of mobile technology, in two field studies of a total of 25 mobile workers who used a variety of mobile devices and services.
Findings
The results demonstrate that the material features of mobile technologies offer five specific affordances that mobile workers use in managing work-life boundaries: mobility, connectedness, interoperability, identifiability and personalization. These affordances persist in their influence across time, despite their connection to different technology features.
Originality/value
The author found that mobile workers’ boundary management strategies do not fit comfortably along a linear segmentation-integration continuum. Rather, mobile workers establish a variety of personalized boundary management practices to match their particular situations. The authors speculate that mobile technology has core material properties that endure over time. The authors surmise that these material properties provide opportunities for users to interact with them in a manner to make the five affordances possible. Therefore, in the future, actors interacting with mobile devices to manage their work-life boundaries may experience affordances similar to those the authors observed because of the presence of the core material properties.
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Neerja Kashive, Brijesh Sharma and Vandana Tandon Khanna
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has (triggered) lots of interest in work from home (WFH) practices. Many organizations in India are changing their work practices and adopting new…
Abstract
Purpose
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has (triggered) lots of interest in work from home (WFH) practices. Many organizations in India are changing their work practices and adopting new models of getting the work done. The purpose of the study to look at the boundary-fit perspective (Ammons (2013) and two factors, namely, individual preferences (boundary control, family identity, work identity and technology stress) and environmental factors (job control, supervisor support and organizational policies). These dimensions are used and considered to create various clusters for employees working from home.
Design/methodology/approach
K-mean clustering was used to do the cluster analysis. Statistical package for social sciences 23 was used to explore different clusters based on a pattern of characteristics unique to that cluster, but each cluster differed from other clusters. Further analysis of variance test was conducted to see how these clusters differ across three chosen outcomes, namely, work-family conflict, boundary management tactics used and positive family-to-work spillover effect. The post hoc test also provided insights on how each cluster differs from others on these outcomes.
Findings
The results indicated four distinct clusters named boundary-fit family guardians, work warriors, boundary-fit fusion lovers and dividers consistent (with previous) research. These clusters also differ across at least two major outcomes like boundary management tactics and positive spillover. The high control cluster profiles like Cluster 3 (boundary-fit fusion lovers) and Cluster 4 (dividers) showed low technostress and higher use of boundary management tactics. Cluster 3 (boundary-fit fusion lovers) and Cluster 1 (boundary-fit family guardians) having high environmental influencers also showed higher positive family-to-work spillover.
Research limitations/implications
Because this study is very specific to the Indian context, a broad generalization requires further exploration in other cultural contexts. The absence of this exploration is one of the limitations of this study. On the culture continuum, countries may vary from being individualistic on one extreme to being collectivistic on the other extreme. Interaction of these two cultural extremities with the individual and the environmental dimension, as espoused in this research, can be examined further in a different cultural setting.
Originality/value
This study has extended the work of Ammons (2013) and added external influencers as a dimension to the individual preferences given by (Kossek 2016), and created the cluster for employees in the Indian context. This study has demonstrated the importance of reduced technostress, and the use of boundary management tactics (temporal and behavioral) leads to positive family-to-work spillover. It has also emphasized the relevance of organization policies and supervisor support for better outcomes in WFH.
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Samantha Miles and Kate Ringham
The purpose of this paper is to use a multi-disciplinary theoretical understanding of boundary setting to develop a quadripartite model in which sustainability reporting boundaries…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use a multi-disciplinary theoretical understanding of boundary setting to develop a quadripartite model in which sustainability reporting boundaries are classified as “Reputation Management”, “Ownership and Control”, “Accountability”; and, “Stakeholder Engagement”. Content analysis is then used to empirically test the model.
Design/methodology/approach
Using impression management theory, rationalism, systems and contingency theory, and network theory, a model is created which classifies sustainability reporting boundaries. Content analysis is used to empirically test boundaries across the disclosure of 49 GRI topics by the FTSE100.
Findings
Sustainability reporting fails to discharge accountability due to adoption of narrow “Reputation Management” boundaries. Boundaries are significantly (p<0.0001) narrower than previous research suggests. Findings support impression management theory as the strongest theory to predict reporting content. An ownership and control boundary, although widely criticized, represents the boundary of progressive reporters, lending marginal support for economic theories. Accountability boundaries are scarce. No evidence was found for stakeholder engagement boundaries.
Practical implications
The determination of boundary is critical to the discharge of accountability. A critical consideration of boundary setting is required, including authentic stakeholder engagement in determining boundaries and transparency of boundary adopted. The results are ranked to enable benchmarking of the FTSE100. Boundaries can be widened through regulation or “name and shame campaigns”.
Originality/value
This paper provides a theory-informed advancement in thinking on sustainability reporting boundary setting and the importance of this for advancing sustainability reporting quality.
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Rosita Capurro, Raffaele Fiorentino and Stefano Garzella
The paper aims to analyse the construct of business model innovation (BMI) in the digital and sustainable landscape, investigating the key role of boundary strategies. The paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to analyse the construct of business model innovation (BMI) in the digital and sustainable landscape, investigating the key role of boundary strategies. The paper advances a comprehensive framework aimed at further understanding the overlap among digitalization, sustainability and BMI development, by a “boundary approach”.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper follows a theoretical approach based on an in-depth review of relevant literature on BMI, digitalization and sustainability as relevant megatrends and, boundary management. By critically integrating the literature, a framework is developed with the objective of supporting firms in the current transformation challenges.
Findings
The paper highlights the interplay among BMIs, megatrends and boundary management. The pressures and opportunities driven by the technological changes have made even more relevant the management of resources placed in the boundary area. Our study shows how firms can rethink their BMs in the digital and sustainable landscape by providing a boundary-based framework.
Practical implications
The framework offers insights and guidelines to help practitioners manage the change processes dictated by digitalization and sustainability. The authors encourage a focus on boundary resources/capabilities to increase the effective management of the digitalization and sustainability processes, to grasp the external stimuli driven by these two megatrends and to develop new/renewed BMIs.
Originality/value
This study emphasizes the importance of developing new BMIs in the current digital and sustainable landscape starting from the analysis of firm’s boundaries. The paper enriches the BMI literature supporting the enhancement of boundary management, leading firms to overcome challenges in the digital and sustainable landscape.
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Rosita Capurro, Raffaele Fiorentino, Stefano Garzella and Rosa Lombardi
The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of boundary management when firms should implement open innovation.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of boundary management when firms should implement open innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
The relevant literature on strategic management, firm boundaries and open innovation fields is revised and critically assessed. An interpretive-qualitative methodology is applied to analyse empirical data obtained from a questionnaire and subsequent interviews of a sample of Italian listed firms. By critically integrating literature review and empirical analysis, a framework is provided with the objective of supporting open innovation implementation.
Findings
The study shows that on the one hand, open innovation and many modern paths of growth are connected to a firm's boundaries and that on the other hand, boundary management plays a key role in the implementation of open innovation.
Practical implications
The paper has implications for practitioners by driving them to shift the focus of open innovation implementation towards the management of boundaries, in which boundary capabilities and activities play a key role.
Originality/value
This paper sheds light on the advantages and risks that can jeopardize a successful opening up innovation processes without the effective management of boundary studies. Thus, the authors identify and propose causes for reflection and tools maximizing potentiality and reducing risks in the implementation of such processes.
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Hyunjin Kang, Wonsun Shin and Junru Huang
This study investigates how different parental mediation strategies (active versus restrictive) and teen Douyin users' privacy risk perceptions are associated with their privacy…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates how different parental mediation strategies (active versus restrictive) and teen Douyin users' privacy risk perceptions are associated with their privacy management behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey with teen Douyin users (N = 500) was administered in mainland China.
Findings
Perceived privacy risk leads teenagers to implement stricter privacy management strategies. However, different types of parental mediation have different impacts on teens' privacy management behaviors. Discussion-based active mediation is positively correlated with privacy disclosure and privacy boundary linkage, while rule-based restrictive mediation is positively associated with privacy boundary control. In addition, active mediation encourages teens to use their own judgment about privacy risks when deciding how much personal information to disclose and with whom they want to share their information. Conversely, restrictive mediation results in teens making decisions about disclosing private information without taking their own risk assessments into account.
Originality/value
Video-sharing social media platforms like TikTok and Douyin have become a cultural trend among teen social media users. However, loss of privacy is a potentially serious downside of using such platforms. Despite the platforms' popularity among this age group, little is known about the ways teens manage their privacy on such social media platforms. By examining how teens' privacy risk perception and parental intervention shape three different aspects of privacy boundary management (i.e. privacy disclosure, privacy boundary linkage, and privacy boundary control), this study provides a comprehensive understanding of teen Douyin users' privacy management.
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Managing the green (environmentally sustainable) supply chain is an important issue for industry. This paper aims to provide a framework to understand and appreciate the…
Abstract
Purpose
Managing the green (environmentally sustainable) supply chain is an important issue for industry. This paper aims to provide a framework to understand and appreciate the relationships of various research streams and topics in this field. Utilizing this framework, emergent research directions to advance the field are also presented.
Design/methodology/approach
Published research in peer‐reviewed journals is evaluated using a new framework of nine non‐exclusive, interrelated boundaries and five flows of resources related to green supply chains and supply chain management.
Findings
The research literature can be integrated into these comprehensive multidimensional frameworks, which also provide opportunities as vehicles for future research. Research directions are described utilizing the framework presented in this paper.
Research limitations/implications
This work presents one potential set of frameworks. Insights relating to other potential frameworks are additional areas of investigation and not presented in this study. The literature reviewed in this paper focuses almost exclusively on peer reviewed journals. Emergent research in this area may also appear in books and conference papers. The frameworks provide guidance for various research streams.
Practical implications
The frameworks and review also provide opportunity for managers and organizations to more comprehensively understand issues underlying green supply chain management.
Social implications
Greening supply chains has become a necessity as environmental concerns have remained at the forefront of the debate of global and local social interests.
Originality/value
The comprehensive boundaries and flows framework can be valuable for identifying barriers to study and implementation of the interdisciplinary green supply chain management topic based on recent published literature. They also provide insights into research streams and practice. The research questions provide some further direction for those wishing to investigate this field.
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