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1 – 10 of over 35000Khadijeh Momeni and Miia Maarit Martinsuo
Resource allocation is challenged by dynamic environments where changes are frequent. The purpose of this paper is to identify resource allocation challenges and practices in…
Abstract
Purpose
Resource allocation is challenged by dynamic environments where changes are frequent. The purpose of this paper is to identify resource allocation challenges and practices in service units that perform both project and non-project activities in dynamic environments. Its goal is to show that top-down mechanisms of project resource allocation need to be replaced by or supplemented with mechanisms that are more flexible.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative comparative case study was conducted in two service units of two project-based firms. The main source of data consisted of semi-structured interviews with 17 service managers and staff members.
Findings
This study shows that resource allocation is not necessarily a top-down process at all, and the practices are context-dependent. Two more flexible approaches are revealed – hybrid resource allocation and bottom-up resource allocation – as examples of managing resource allocation in service units that engage in projects under uncertain conditions. The results of the analysis highlight prioritisation and adapting to change and delay as the main issues that managers face in allocating resources to different types of projects and service activities in dynamic environments.
Research limitations/implications
The two target companies chosen for the qualitative research design limit the analysis to project-based firms in a business-to-business context. Further, the viewpoint of the service unit is central to the study. Studying project resource allocation in different organisational contexts and uncovering the perspectives of product development and delivery units would offer promising directions for future research.
Practical implications
The study reveals that in dynamic project settings such as service organisations, top-down mechanisms of resource allocation need to be accompanied by other, more flexible approaches to ensure the sufficient resourcing of projects and related services in dynamic environments. Companies need to establish practices for resource allocation changes that are caused by re-prioritising tasks and accommodating changes and delays in their project and service activities.
Originality/value
Compared to a top-down perspective taken in previous research, the study proposes a more flexible approach for resource allocation in constantly changing environments with different project and service activities. Previous studies have focussed on resource competition between projects, placing project managers in the central role for resource allocation. By contrast, this study discusses hybrid and bottom-up resource allocation, both of which involve broader personnel engagement in resource allocation tasks, drawing on the experience of all employees.
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Shamsuddin Ahmed and Rayan Hamza Alsisi
A new triage method, MBCE (Medical Bio Social Ethics), is presented with social justice, bio, and medical ethics for critical resource distribution during a pandemic. Ethical…
Abstract
Purpose
A new triage method, MBCE (Medical Bio Social Ethics), is presented with social justice, bio, and medical ethics for critical resource distribution during a pandemic. Ethical triage is a complex and challenging process that requires careful consideration of medical, social, cultural, and ethical factors to guide the decision-making process and ensure fair and transparent allocation of resources. When assigning priorities to patients, a clinician would evaluate each patient’s medical condition, age, comorbidities, and prognosis, as well as their cultural and social background and ethical factors.
Design/methodology/approach
A statistical analysis shows no interactions among the ethical triage factors. It implies the ethical components have no moderation effect; hence, each is independent. The result also points out that medical and bioethics may have an affinity for interactions. In such cases, there seem to be some ethical factors related to bio and medical ethics that are correlated. Therefore, the triage team should be careful in evaluating patient cases. The algorithm is explained with case histories of the selected patient. A group of triage nurses and general medical practitioners assists with the triage.
Findings
The MBCE triage algorithm aims to allocate scarce resources fairly and equitably. Another ethical principle in this triage algorithm is the principle of utility. In a pandemic, the principle of utility may require prioritizing patients with a higher likelihood of survival or requiring less medical care. The research presents a sensitivity analysis of a patient’s triage score to show the algorithm’s robustness. A weighted score of ethical factors combined with an assessment of triage factors combines multiple objectives to assign a fair triage score. These distinctive features of the algorithm are reasonably easy to implement and a new direction for the unbiased triage principle.
Originality/value
The idea is to make decisions about distributing and using scarce medical resources. Triage algorithms raise ethical issues, such as discrimination and justice, guiding medical ethics in treating patients with terminal diseases or comorbidity. One of the main ethical principles in triage algorithms is the principle of distributive justice.
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Craig Mitton, François Dionne and Diane Schmidt
The purpose of this chapter is to describe a method for priority setting that can be used to identify options for disinvestment, and is also meant to serve as a tool for re…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to describe a method for priority setting that can be used to identify options for disinvestment, and is also meant to serve as a tool for re-allocation of resources to achieve better outcomes with a given pot of resources.
Approach
This chapter draws on findings from the application of a priority setting and resource allocation framework known as Program Budgeting and Marginal Analysis (PBMA). Case studies are used to illustrate key points around implementation including factors for success and guidelines for improving priority setting in practice.
Findings
PBMA has been applied in over 150 settings over the last 30 years. Purposes varied from focusing strictly on disinvestment to examining opportunities for re-allocation. Many organizations report continued use of the framework and decision makers typically express a desire to not revert to historical allocation or political negotiation in deciding on the funding for programs.
Practical implications
Practical implications of this body of work on priority setting abound in that there are significant opportunities to improve resource allocation practice including better engagement of staff, clinicians and public members, greater use of evidence in decision making and improving process transparency.
Social implications
As healthcare resources are limited, particularly in predominantly publicly funded health systems, prudent use of resources is critical. Actually applying the appropriate tools to ensure that funding aligns with organizational and system objectives is paramount.
Originality/value
Although there is a large body of literature on priority setting particularly in countries like the United Kingdom and Canada, this chapter serves to highlight key messages specifically in the context of fiscal constraint and in relation to the concept of disinvestment or service reduction.
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Raju M. Mathew and Santhamma Raju
Universities are social and economic instruments for investment in man and thereby for the development of human resources at the highest level. This is truer in the case of…
Abstract
Universities are social and economic instruments for investment in man and thereby for the development of human resources at the highest level. This is truer in the case of developing countries where science and technology have not yet extended their beneficial aspects to whole spheres of social life. While preserving culture and heritage, universities are the most powerful institutions for social change and innovation. At the same time, universities and colleges themselves are subject to changes and need to adapt to these.
The aim of this research is to explore the behavioral model of Chinese organizational leaders acquiring resources for the development of their organizations under the influence of…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research is to explore the behavioral model of Chinese organizational leaders acquiring resources for the development of their organizations under the influence of hierarchically oriented social governance.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper compares the differences between Western and Chinese contexts and conducts a grounded multi-case study to explore leadership behavioral model in the Chinese context.
Findings
First, the Chinese social governance structure is hierarchically oriented, whereas the Western social governance structure is market oriented. Second, this unique inconformity found in the Chinese organizational leaders as contorted leadership, which refers to the inconsistency between leaders’ cognition and their behavior when acquiring resources for the development of their organizations, is defined. Third, the conflict between leaders’ cognition and behaviors is caused by the social governance mechanism within which leaders are embedded.
Research limitations/implications
The authors have just made a first step to understand contorted leadership in the Chinese context, further researches should pay more attention to exploring the origins, functions and impacts of leaders’ contorted behaviors.
Originality/value
First, leadership is linked with social governance by emphasizing on the core role of social governance in allocating the resources which organizational leaders scramble for. Second, a new kind of leadership –contorted leadership – in the Chinese context that emphasizes on the contradiction between leaders’ cognition and behavior, which deepens the understanding of leadership contextualization, is identified.
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The paper seeks to explore the development of an intellectual capital flow statement based on a framework that harnesses contemporary research on intellectual capital.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to explore the development of an intellectual capital flow statement based on a framework that harnesses contemporary research on intellectual capital.
Design/methodology/approach
Case studies of wireless technology companies based in Canada are adopted to examine the interrelationship between intellectual capital components with a resource‐based view as well as deficiencies in their current financial reporting with respect to intellectual capital. An intellectual capital flow statement is proposed in order to capture the necessary characteristics.
Findings
This study confirms the inter‐relationship between components of intellectual capital and business growth performance among the selected cases of wireless technology companies. It suggests an “add‐on” disclosure of intellectual capital flow that would enhance the usefulness and predictability of performance.
Research limitations/implications
This study is based on case studies of six wireless technology companies and may not be generalisable to other technology‐based companies.
Practical implications
The paper suggests a disclosure method for intellectual capital that mitigates problems with information asymmetry in technology‐based companies while maintaining harmony with current financial reporting practice.
Originality/value
This paper integrates prior studies and concepts in intellectual capital, technology management and financial accounting theory, aiming to develop an integrated framework for the disclosure of intellectual capital.
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Shin-Horng Chen, Wei-Tsong Wang and Chih-Tsen Lu
Understanding the construction of individual entrepreneurial identity for entrepreneurship education is an important but understudied issue. Prior studies indicate that…
Abstract
Purpose
Understanding the construction of individual entrepreneurial identity for entrepreneurship education is an important but understudied issue. Prior studies indicate that entrepreneurship learning is associated with not only learning critical entrepreneurial skills and knowledge but also facilitating the construction of a personal entrepreneurial identity. However, educators are constantly challenged by the task of facilitating such an identity within students via learning-by-doing processes in the context of entrepreneurial teams. Additionally, while effective conflict management is essential to productive entrepreneurial learning in entrepreneurial teams, studies that investigate the relationships between interpersonal conflicts of entrepreneurial teams and the students' entrepreneurial identity are absent.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach of an in-depth case study was adopted to achieve our research purpose.
Findings
A conceptual model that describes the construction of the entrepreneurial identity of students of entrepreneurial teams in a learning-by-doing environment from the perspectives of conflicts and task characteristics are developed.
Research limitations/implications
The research findings highlight the preliminary relationships between task characteristics (i.e. task interdependence, task uncertainty, resource competition and tension regarding responsibility allocation) and interpersonal conflicts of entrepreneurial teams, and their impacts on the entrepreneurial identity of team members.
Originality/value
This study is among the first group of studies that especially explores the relationships among task characteristics of entrepreneurship projects, interpersonal conflicts and the development of students' entrepreneurial identity.
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Maxwell Philip Omondi, Kepha Ombui and Joseph Mungatu
The purpose of the study was to find out the determinants of strategy implementation by the international reproductive health (RH) non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Kenya…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study was to find out the determinants of strategy implementation by the international reproductive health (RH) non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Kenya for attainment of MDG 5 by 2015. The objectives of the study were to analyse the effects of the determinants of strategy implementation for attainment of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 by international RH NGOs operating in Kenya. This study was guided by three specific objectives: to analyse the effect of policy regulations on strategy implementation by international RH NGOs in attainment of MDG 5; to determine the effect of management competencies on strategy implementation by international RH NGOs in attainment of MDG 5 and to explore the effect of resource allocation on strategy implementation by international RH NGOs in attainment of MDG 5 by 2015 in Kenya.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional descriptive study design was carried out from January to March 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya. The study populations comprised of programme staff and RH technical advisors for the international RH NGOs operating in Kenya and headquartered in Nairobi. The sampling design was a census method since all the ten international RH NGOs based in Nairobi were selected. Qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection were used using both closed and open-ended questionnaires. The quantitative data were analysed using SPSS version 20 for both descriptive and inferential analysis. Qualitative data were analysed descriptively. Measures of location and variability were used for analysis and hypothesis tested using Fisher ' s Exact test and regression analysis.
Findings
The research findings showed that policy regulations, management competencies and the resource allocations determine successful implementation of the strategic plans. Inadequate resource allocations have a direct bearing on the implementation of the RH programmes which invariably affects the attainment of the MDG 5 by 2015. The study did not accept the null hypotheses and therefore showed that there is relationship between policy regulations, management competencies and resource allocations and the implementation of strategic management plans by international RH NGOs operating in Kenya.
Originality/value
Although numerous studies acknowledge that strategies frequently fail not because of inadequate strategy formulation, but because of insufficient implementation, strategy implementation has received less research attention than strategy formulation. This paper addresses this gap.
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Jialin Song, Yiyi Su, Taoyong Su and Luyu Wang
The purpose of this paper is, from a resource accumulation and resource allocation perspective, to examine the variant effects of government subsidies among firms with varying…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is, from a resource accumulation and resource allocation perspective, to examine the variant effects of government subsidies among firms with varying levels of market power and to test how industry competition moderates the relationship between market power and allocative efficiency of government subsidies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study explores the relationship between government subsidies and firm performance from a resource-based view. The authors study the moderating role of market power and three-way interaction between subsidy, market power and industry competition on firm performance. The authors test their hypotheses using a sample of Chinese A-share manufacturing firms from 2006–2019. The authors apply firm-level panel data regressions and conduct a series of robustness tests. The marginal effect of market power and industry competition is explored via three-way moderator effect models.
Findings
This study finds that government subsidies are negatively related to firm performance. Market power, on average, strengthens the negative effect of government subsidies on performance, but such a reinforcement effect is neutralized when industry competition is intense. Government subsidies are least efficiently used when firms have market power and industry competition is low. In addition, the authors use different forms of firm performance and a various of robustness tests to verify their assumptions.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature as follows. First, the authors look into subsidy–performance problem from the perspective of the resource-based view and contribute to explaining and mitigating the divergence of current findings on the subsidy–performance relationship. Second, the authors introduce market power and industry competition as moderators to study how resource allocative efficiency affects the subsidy–performance relationship. Third, the authors propose that managerial incentives have played an important role in the allocation of government subsidies, which enriches management practices.
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Jessye L. Bemley, Lauren B. Davis and Luther G. Brock
As the intensity of natural disasters increases, there is a need to develop policies and procedures to assist various agencies with moving aid to affected areas. One of the…
Abstract
Purpose
As the intensity of natural disasters increases, there is a need to develop policies and procedures to assist various agencies with moving aid to affected areas. One of the biggest limitations to this process is damage to transportation networks, in particular waterways. To keep waterways safe, aids to navigation (ATONs) are placed in various areas to guide mariners and ships to their final destination. If the ATONs are damaged, then the waterways are left unsafe, making it difficult to move supplies and recover from a disaster. The aim of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of pre‐positioning strategies for port recovery in response to a natural disaster.
Design/methodology/approach
A stochastic facility location model is presented to determine where teams and commodities should be pre‐positioned in order to maximize the number of ATONs repaired, given a constraint on response time. The first stage decisions focus on determining the location of resources. The second stage decisions consist of the distribution of supplies and teams to affected areas.
Findings
Results show the benefit of pre‐positioning and the value of coordination toward the responsiveness of restoring waterways. Furthermore, the relationship between resources, repair time, and response is characterized.
Originality/value
There has been extensive work addressing pre‐positioning as it relates to responding to the needs of populations affected by disasters. However, little has been done to explore pre‐positioning in the context of business recovery from severe weather events.
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