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This paper aims to investigate the role of resource orchestration in turnaround attempts following the organizational decline in the context of an emerging economy.

Multicase study of three Brazilian textile firms, following their trajectory from 1997 to 2009. We did a “historical reconstruction using the methodology” proposed by Mintzberg and McHugh (1985) to guide our data collection and analysis procedures. The methodology is geared towards the study of the evolution of organizations over a past period, wherein the researcher reconstructs the events after they have occurred, having developed them from documentary analysis and oral history.

The results indicate that resource orchestration is a critical capability for ensuring the coordinated implementation of operational and strategic actions in a turnaround. Moreover, in a context involving severe environmental jolts, the conservation of organizational slack appears to influence the effectiveness of resource orchestration and explains the different outcomes the firms in this study achieved in their turnaround attempts.

This paper may be useful to practitioners involved in turnarounds, helping them evaluate the consequences of decisions involving the acquisition, reconfiguration, bundling and divestment of firm resources.

Besides contributing to the advancement of theory-informed research on decline and turnaround, this paper may be useful to practitioners involved in turnarounds, when they consider the consequences of decisions involving firm resources.

This paper helps advance theory-informed research on decline and turnaround in developing economies, helping address a gap in the extant literature, primarily focused on firms in developed countries.

Investigar, en el contexto de una economía emergente, el papel de la orquestación de recursos en los intentos de recuperación después del declive organizacional`.

Estudio multicaso de tres empresas textiles brasileñas siguiendo su trayectoria desde 1997 hasta 2009. Hicimos una “reconstrucción histórica utilizando la metodología” propuesta por Mintzberg y McHugh (1985) para guiar nuestra recopilación de datos y procedimientos de análisis. La metodología está orientada hacia el estudio de la evolución de organizaciones en un período pasado, en el que el investigador reconstruye los eventos después de que han ocurrido, habiéndolos desarrollado a partir del análisis documental y la historia oral.

Nuestros resultados indican que la orquestación de recursos es una capacidad crítica para garantizar la implementación coordinada de acciones operativas y estratégicas en un processo de recuperación. Adicionalmente, en un contexto que implica impactos ambientales significativos, mantener la holgura organizacional parece influir sobre la eficacia de la orquestación de recursos y explica la diferencia de los resultados que las empresas encuestadas alcanzaron en sus tentativas de recuperación.

Este artículo puede ser útil para los profesionales implicados en procesos de recuperación, ayudándoles a evaluar las consecuencias de las decisiones que implican la adquisición, reconfiguración, agrupación y desecho de recursos de la empresa.

Este estudio contribuye al avance de la investigación de base teórica sobre declive y recuperación en economías en desarrollo, ayudando a eliminar una laguna en la literatura existente, la cual se a centrado principalmente en empresas en países desarrollados.

Investigar o papel da orquestração de recursos nas tentativas de turnaround após o declínio organizacional, no contexto de uma economia emergente.

Estudo multicaso de três empresas têxteis brasileiras, seguindo sua trajetória de 1997 até 2009. Fizemos uma “reconstrução histórica usando o metodologia” proposta por Mintzberg e McHugh (1985) para guiar nossa coleta de dados e procedimentos de análise. A metodologia é voltada para o estudo da evolução de organizaçöes ao longo de um período passado, em que o pesquisador reconstrói os eventos após ocorreram, tendo-os desenvolvido a partir da análise documental e da história oral.

Nossos resultados indicam que a orquestração de recursos é uma capacidade crítica para garantir a implementação coordenada de ações operacionais e estratégicas num turnaround. Adicionalmente, num contexto envolvendo choques ambientais significativos, a preservação da folga organizacional parece influenciar a eficácia da orquestração de recursos e explicar a diferença dos resultados que as empresas pesquisadas alcançaram nas suas tentativas de turnaround.

Este artigo pode ser útil para profissionais envolvidos em turnarounds, ajudando-os a avaliar as consequências de decisões envolvendo a aquisição, reconfiguração, agrupamento e descarte de recursos da empresa.

Este estudo contribui para o avanço da pesquisa de base teórica sobre declínio e turnaround em economias em desenvolvimento, ajudando a eliminar uma lacuna na literatura existente, focada principalmente em empresas em países desenvolvidos.

This ethnographic case study examined college pathways of rural, first-generation students. Current research primarily examines factors predicting rural students’ college aspirations, participation, and completion. This study examined why and how such factors influenced students in a rural, high-poverty county and explored how rural culture influenced pathways. The study found that attachment to family significantly influenced college-going decisions and behaviors. Families provided support necessary for high aspirations, college-going, and persistence. Students’ decision to leave, return, or stay was difficult given this attachment; yet, lack of economic opportunity affected decisions also. Cultural legacies influenced college-going. Schools, communities, and peers were also relevant. Given the importance of family, institutional, state, and federal policies and practices must involve families and replicate family support models.

A sustainable transportation system should represent a win-win situation: minimizing transport's impact on the environment and reducing natural disasters' effects on transportation. A well-distributed set of rain gauges is crucial for monitoring services in smart cities. However, those services should consider the uncertainties about the registers of rainfall impacts. In this paper, the authors present a case study of optimal rain gauge location based on an actual database of rainfall events with impacts on urban mobility in the city of Sao Paulo (Brazil).

This paper presents a maximal covering location formulation and proposes a robustness analysis considering spatial location perturbations.

In this case study, the robustness of the objective function is above 99.99%. The robustness for the number of covered demand points is 88.93%, and the frequency associated with every candidate is between 11.71% and 69.49%.

Incorporating spatial uncertainties on coverage problems is essential to provide stakeholders more realistic supporting tools and to draw different possible scenarios.

European Union (EU) central and eastern economies have gone through a process of structural change since 1989, when the post-communist transition started. This process was afterwards reinforced by the three EU enlargement waves that took place in 2004, 2007 and 2013. Though exhibiting low levels of aggregate productivity, this group of countries joined the EU with higher levels of human capital than the southern member states, an advantage that should have accelerated real convergence towards the EU15. However, evidence to date suggests that the convergence process came to a halt in 2007–2008 when massive capital inflows stopped, highlighting the fragilities of the growth strategies implemented so far. In these peripheral countries, structural change has been characterised by an expanding services sector alongside growing income inequality. The two strands of literature on these issues highlight that: (a) an expanding services sector may not be detrimental for growth, quite the opposite, depending on services composition and on the capacity of services sub-sectors to incorporate information and communication technologies (ICTs); and (b) inequality is negatively related to growth through the fiscal policy, socio-political instability, borrowing constraints to investment in education and endogenous fertility channels and positively through the savings channel and incentives. We analyse the nexus between structural change, inequality and growth in this group of countries highlighting income inequality as a potential mechanism that connects the other two variables. We provide a descriptive quantitative analysis of the profiles of structural change and income inequality in our sample and apply dynamic panel methods to investigate the existence of causality among services sector expansion, inequality and aggregate productivity considering a maximum period between 1980 and 2010.

The recent European crisis has raised a number of concerns among economists about the persistence of significant productive and competitiveness differences across national economies within the European Union (EU). Such differences can be seen as both a major root cause underlying the crisis and as an important factor explaining the current political difficulties within the EU.

The big divide between core and periphery is taken into account in this chapter, which focuses on the processes of structural transformation in the European periphery. We intend to contribute to a better understanding of structural changes in Europe and of their potential impact on future growth prospects and overall convergence/divergence dynamics.

A comparison of the experiences of two groups of peripheral countries is undertaken, based on a sample of old member states of Southwestern Europe and of new member states of Eastern Europe. A descriptive analysis is made of the trends occurred in the structure of production, employment and trade, examining this evidence in the light of technology and skill-based industrial classifications. Comparisons are made for both the pre and post-crisis periods.

Changes in the economic structure towards more skill- and technology-intensive sectors were relatively modest in Southwest Europe, whereas they increased rapidly in Eastern Europe. Notwithstanding, both groups of countries have experienced a strong deterioration of the growth dynamics after 2008, which seems to reflect the strong emphasis of economic policy on financial market stabilisation and a relative neglect of policies targeted to the recovery of investment and to the reinforcement of exporting capacities.

The solution to overcome economic retardation requires inevitably export-led growth and the building up of a more competitive economy. This, in turn, requires the design of an adequate industrial policy.

The innovation orientation theory has emerged within the literature in the last 40 years particular within the development of other strategic orientations, but the bulk of seminal literature in the area has been developed in the past 11 years. The purpose of this paper is to revisit the concept innovation orientation in the light of recent research.

This paper presents a systematic review of this literature, covering 74 scholarly articles published between 1982 and 2017.

Innovation orientation is a sub-construct positioned within the wider field of innovation and relates to an innovation-based strategic orientation, where orientation is used to describe the overall dominant approach that represents an organisation’s competitive posture and strategic focus. It is a multifaceted construct that includes a range of core common variables innovation culture, competition-based understanding, organisational flexibility and specific capital and knowledge capabilities and is particular relevant for that managers and executives to understand how to manage innovation at the firm level. Literature also reports links between innovation orientation and organisational performance.

On the basis of these analyses, a comprehensive innovation orientation framework is developed including key antecedents and key outcomes in terms of performance enhancement and capabilities development. Suggestions for future research are also presented.

The purpose of this paper is to learn from participants about their experiences managing type 1 and type 2 diabetes at work.

Longitudinal, qualitative interviews with 45 individuals three times per year over three years focussed on views about disclosure; how they found or created support to manage their diabetes at work; and how they experienced the relationship between health and productivity.

Among participants, the presence of secondary conditions, such as fibromyalgia or vision loss, typically overshadowed the effect of diabetes at work. These conditions were often mentioned as the reason why a participant changed jobs, stopped working, or decreased work hours. Perspectives on disclosure were affected by the perception of stigma and discrimination, as well as the need for workplace accommodations. Overall, participants believed that the routine of a job and feeling useful benefited their health.

The nature of the research was not medical and the paper did not collect participants’ medical records. The paper relied on self-report for diagnoses of diabetes and co-morbidities as well as unrelated health conditions. Although the participants lived in a variety of urban, suburban, and rural settings, the findings do not reflect the ways in which differences in geography may have influenced participants’ experience. A focus of future research might be the role played by geographic location in the experience of managing diabetes at work. Also, the majority of employed participants worked for small employers. Future research might include a focus on participants managing diabetes while working for larger employers, who may have greater resources and staffing to devote toward implementing changes in workplace policy.

The paper considers the preference that many participants have for working and being productive rather than not working, including those with secondary conditions as well as diabetes. The number of participants (n=45) is relatively large for a qualitative interview study. The longitudinal nature of the study allowed for a follow-along opportunity that yielded a rich source of data.

The study aims to analyse the role of finance in the agro-industrialisation nexus in Nigeria using annual data on manufacturing value added, agricultural value added and volume of finance availed to the agricultural sector from 1981 to 2015.

To establish the presence of a long-run relationship, the error correction model and bounds cointegration techniques are employed. Likewise, the model is augmented to test whether the associated relationship between industrial output and agricultural output depends on access to finance by farmers with the inclusion of an interaction term.

Some salient contributions to the literature are as follows: agriculture and finance are strong and positive predictors of industrialisation in the long run; in the short run, past realisations of industrial output and finance have significant asymmetric effects on industrial output; the explanatory power of agriculture decreases with the growth of the financial system; and the long-run results validate the role of finance in the agro-industrialisation nexus.

Given these findings, achieving growth in the agricultural sector that will induce desired industrialisation should be prioritised by the government through agencies such as the central bank, financial intermediaries and other stakeholders with a view to making agricultural financing a major concern for sustainable domestic consumption and industrial growth.

This paper aims to investigate the evolution, roots and influence of the rural entrepreneurship literature.

Using a bibliometric exercise, the analysis starts with investigation of studies on entrepreneurship and gathering all (772) articles on rural entrepreneurship (from 1981 to 2020) found in both Scopus and Web of Science up to 15 August 2020. Citation analysis of the references/citations of 755 articles are listed in the abstract database, generating a citation database involving 46,432 references/citations. This paper considers 635 (out of the 772) articles on rural entrepreneurship (i.e. articles cited in one or more studies), generating a database of 10,767 studies influenced by the rural entrepreneurship literature.

This study discovers that the relative importance of rural entrepreneurship within the entrepreneurship literature has increased in the last few years, but rural entrepreneurship remains a European concern; the most frequently addressed topics include growth and development, institutional frameworks and governance and rurality, with theory building being rather understudied. Most of the studies on rural entrepreneurship are empirical, involving mainly qualitative analyses and targeting high income countries; rural entrepreneurship is rooted in the fields of economics and entrepreneurship and is relatively self-referential.

This study provides a comprehensive and updated investigation of evolution of the rural entrepreneurship literature. The assessment of the literature’s scientific roots of rural entrepreneurship had not yet been tackled before. To the best of the author’s knowledge this study can be considered as the first effort for identifying the scientific influence of the rural entrepreneurship literature.

It is not rare to read positive comments about North American higher education from higher education stakeholders in Europe, particularly policy-makers and institutional managers. The aspects of the system which are most often praised are the degree of institutional competition and the benefits this brings in terms of institutional flexibility, responsiveness, and adaptability. Moreover, those voices also enhance the resourcefulness of North American higher education institutions in finding alternative sources of funding to cope with the steady decline in public funding. In recent decades European higher education has felt the impact of the aforementioned trends and the effects have been not altogether dissimilar from the ones identified in North American higher education. Moreover, the growing integration of European higher education systems has also contributed to enhance some convergence with some of the trends identified in the American case. In this paper, we reflect on the impact of the increasing marketization of funding and governance mechanisms on the European higher education landscape and compare it with the impact of those trends discussed in the papers by Irwin Feller and George W. Breslauer.