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The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the contingent use of rational, intuitive and political decision-making in R&D.

This research is based on a study in an R&D department of a multinational high-tech firm in the Netherlands. The study consists of a case study design, focusing on four embedded cases, longitudinally studying each case.

The literature distinguishes three dimensions of innovation decision-making processes: rational, intuitive and political. By studying these interwoven dimensions over time, this study finds that the dominant use of each of these dimensions differs across the innovation process. There is an emphasis on intuitive decision-making in an early phase, followed by more emphasis on political decision-making, and moving to more emphasis on rational decision-making in a later phase of the R&D process. Furthermore, the predominant choice in a specific innovation phase for one of the three decision-making dimensions is influenced by the decision-making dimension that is dominantly employed in the preceding phase.

This study contributes to the innovation decision-making literature by developing and applying a model that distinguishes rational, intuitive and political decision-making dimensions, the interactions among these dimensions in innovation decision-making in R&D, and the contingency of these dimensions upon the innovation phase. It calls for further research into the contingent nature of innovation decision-making processes.

For practitioners this study has two relevant insights. First it highlights the importance and usefulness of intuitive and political decision-making in addition to the prevailing emphasis on rational decision-making. Second, practitioners may be more alert to consciously changing their dominant decision-making approach across the phases of the innovation process. Third, companies may adjust their human resource policies to this study’s findings.

The literature on rational, intuitive and political decision-making is quite extensive. However, research has hardly studied how these decision-making dimensions develop in conjunction, and over time. This paper reports on a first study to do so and finds that the dominant use of these dimensions is contingent upon the phase of the R&D process and on the decision-making dimensions used in earlier phases. The study suggests that using a contingency approach can help to further integrate the debate in research and practice.

Vaccine safety is a major issue in the world. Blockchain technology is the right solution to this worldwide problem. The impact of introducing blockchain technology on the operational efficiency of the vaccine supply chain is unclear. Therefore, from the perspective of game theory, this paper aims to construct a vaccine supply chain model consisting of a vaccine manufacturer, a vaccine traceability service platform based on blockchain technology and a vaccination unit to discuss its pricing and coordination.

This study analyzes the pricing and coordination of the vaccine supply chain based on blockchain technology, compares the decision-making of fixed charge scenario and proportional charge scenario and reveals the impact of blockchain on the vaccine supply chain.

Results demonstrate that the revenue-sharing contract can coordinate the vaccine supply chain when the proportion of revenue sharing meets certain conditions. The fixed charge scenario is more beneficial to the vaccine supply chain than the proportional charge scenario. The introduction of blockchain technology increases the total profit, consumer surplus and social welfare of the vaccine supply chain. Therefore, the operational efficiency of the vaccine supply chain is improved.

This study not only provides important support for enterprises to adopt blockchain technology but also provides some guidance for decision-makers to implement scientific and feasible vaccine supply chain management schemes.

The purpose of this study is to learn about data structures in relation to decisions about family travel being influenced by sellers (i.e. agents), spouses/partners, spouse, kids and friends/relatives (i.e. influencing units). Concern is with units affecting decisions about duration, budget, destinations, restaurants, daily tours and accommodation facilities.

Research is on survey data collected from British family groups visiting Turkey in the summer of 2007. Data allowing study of a range of matters were collected by haphazard but not necessarily random selection of respondents in an airport departure lounge.

The study identifies independent effects of influencing units on aspects of decision but also shows that demographic factors affect aspects of decision making such as the choice of destination. Methodologically, the study identifies questionnaire structure and analysis methodology to use in examining further research.

Results suggest how influencing units (e.g. self, spouse) affect aspects of decision making aiding practitioners in understanding influences on decisions.

The research opens a new area of investigation by implementing a questionnaire structure, developing analysis avenues and establishing results for further examination (i.e. to establish their generality).

This paper aims to investigate the consequences of the coercive regulations for performance measurement and comparability that strengthened regional health authority’s control over organizations’ activities on management accountants’ relationship with clinician managers, who are the recipients of accounting information for decisional processes in health-care organizations. To achieve this aim, the research focuses on management accountants’ perception of their role and whether they perceive role conflict and role ambiguity.

A case study was undertaken in a public university hospital in the Emilia-Romagna region, Italy; 9 management accountants and 11 clinician managers were interviewed and secondary data analyzed.

Management accountants show low capabilities to support clinician managers’ decisional processes. Following the enactment of regulations, management accountants perform their role with a primary focus on functional responsibility. The focus on the provision of information to address regulations influenced management accountants’ capability to act as business partners in the organization. Because of the conflicting information needs from regulations and clinician managers, management accountants experience role conflict and ambiguity.

The paper has implications for policymakers, underlining the consequences of strict regulations on management accountants’ role. It also emphasizes the importance of revising accounting techniques to satisfy both regional requirements and clinician managers’ needs for decision-making.

The article contributes to knowledge related to the role of management accountants in health care. It explores, in particular, the consequences of coercive regulations in health-care organizations, adding knowledge to a field that remains quite unexplored.

The long tradition in the public sector of introducing decision-making tools that then fail to live up to expectations has fueled a debate over the proper role of government. This paper suggests that the debate over government productivity may be misplaced. Public productivity may be hindered as a result of inappropriate use of decisionmaking tools for the allocation of resources. Thus, this paper argues for an enlarged repertoire of decision-making techniques. In particular, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is presented as an alternative often more appropriate than such commonly used techniques as cost-benefit ratio and regression analyses.

Current models of strategy formulation do not always prove robust in application; here is one whose roles are short or long‐term criteria for financial control and the making of decisions at either corporate centre or business unit.

This paper aims to provide an opportunity to study organization buying behavior, specifically buying and selling in the B2B context. The case demonstrates the need to understand the expectations of the buyer’s decision-making unit and the challenges involved in acquiring and retaining customers based on the articulated value proposition of the product. The case also provides an opportunity to explore the critical issues related to an organization’s buying process, while emphasizing on the importance of customer relationship management and the challenges involved in sales conversion.

The case is a filed-based study that aims to provide insight on differences between buying and selling in B2B & B2C and an understanding on customer value proposition in B2B buying context.

The case provides a comprehensive overview on the key role of decision-making units and decision-making process in B2B context.

This is an India-specific field-based case study on B2B selling situation. The case provides a framework on salesperson B2B selling approach, techniques and skills in view of the changing business selling environment in the age of technologically advanced digital world.

In 1988, Israel’s largest sick fund embarked on a process of decentralization, which consisted of the delegation of authority from central management to two regions that were chosen as demonstration sites. Aims to examine the extent to which the decentralization plan was implemented, to identify the major difficulties in implementation and to evaluate the process of implementing organizational change. Contends that the demonstration programme was implemented in part only, and that difficulties did arise during implementation. Our evaluation of the decentralization process led us to develop conceptual diagnoses of the various problems that might arise during decentralization and derive lessons for successful implementation. Evaluation taught us that when implementing a plan of decentralization, it is beneficial to make a clear division of responsibilities; develop control instruments and an information infrastructure; improve the skills of managers; appoint a team responsible for implementing decentralization, and establish a joint forum for working out problems between central management and sub‐units; and clarify organizational policy on the central operational issues facing sub‐units. Expresses the hope that the conclusions drawn here will help other organizations in Israel and abroad in planning and implementing decentralization.

This chapter is concerned with access to bank finance by ethnic minority businesses (EMBs) in the U.K., focusing particularly on the process of decision-making by bank managers with respect to credit applications by entrepreneurs from ethnic minority groups. The results reported in this chapter are taken from a major U.K. study that included two large scale surveys of EMB owners and a white control group, case studies with ethnic minority entrepreneurs and a programme of interviews with business support agencies. Whilst referring to other evidence, this chapter focuses on the findings from a series of interviews with bank representatives. The U.K. study was funded by the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), the Bank of England and the Small Business Service and supported by the Commission for Racial Equality.

This study aims to assign efficiency score and then ranking the Indian companies known for best practices to control carbon-emission in the environment. It is destined to benchmark one company for best performance on the basis of selected alternatives among its peer group companies.

The present study has used a hybrid model by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA)-technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) to measure the efficiency and ranking of various decision units on the basis of specified variables.

The findings of DEA have given the best alternative or best decision-making unit (DMU) among the set of 25 DMUs considered for empirical testing. The DEA technique is used with TOPSIS, which is another popular multi-criteria decision model. The integrated DEA-TOPSIS model has helped to compute the efficiency score of all 25 DMUs of study and also provide a unique rank to each of the efficient unit identified with the help of DEA technique.

The findings of the study have provided Benchmark Company amongst the companies following best practices for saving energy and having best operating profits too. This benchmark business unit can be studied extensively by peer group companies to compare various parameters affecting their efficiency and profits both.

The findings of the study will promote the socially responsible practices by corporate citizens and adopt the practices to reduce their carbon footprints. It will also suggest to socially responsible investors to select the benchmark and most efficient companies for investment purpose.

The study is original in terms of measuring efficiency and ranking of companies known for best practices for controlling their carbon footprints and suggesting a benchmark company to its peer group. Also, the integrated approach of using DEA-TOPSIS for such type of studies also makes it distinctive from earlier work done in the related field.