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1 – 10 of 90Sofiane Laribi and Emmanuel Guy
The article investigates factors associated with the relative success in adopting two specific alternative marine energies (liquefied natural gas [LNG] and electric batteries) in…
Abstract
Purpose
The article investigates factors associated with the relative success in adopting two specific alternative marine energies (liquefied natural gas [LNG] and electric batteries) in the Norwegian ferry market. This specific market segment is an interesting case study as its national-flagged fleet boasting the largest number of ships using alternative marine energies in comparison with the other countries of the region and the world.
Design/methodology/approach
A database tracking the yearly deployment of ships using a different combination of LNG and electric batteries was built from shipping lines’ online information and grey literature. The technological adoption approach was used to categorize different groups of users at each step of the adoption process and identify which factors separate the early adopters from the other groups of end-users. The compiled data allow tracing the changing distribution of Norwegian ferry operators along the conceptualized technology adoption curve.
Findings
Results indicated that the Norwegian ferry market matches required conditions to pass the “chasm” of uncertainties associated with transitioning to new technology. Some disparities between the adoption of LNG and the electric batteries in the Norwegian ferry markets are observed.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, no study has explored the adoption of new energies in the maritime industry based on the technology adoption process through a similar perspective. The analysis is helpful to shed light on the barriers associated with a high level of uncertainties when it comes to adopting new marine energies.
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The purpose of this study is to highlight and critically assess the salient features of the Worker’s Rights Act 2019 of Mauritius.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to highlight and critically assess the salient features of the Worker’s Rights Act 2019 of Mauritius.
Design/methodology/approach
The various essential sections of the Act is assessed to underline the way they provide for an upgrade and progress in comparison with former labour legislation of Mauritius. The standards set by the International Labour Organisation are used as parameters to assess the salient features of the Act.
Findings
The new law puts the worker, as an individual human being, at the centre of the law and employment-related legal provisions have been designed accordingly. This law is an essential and much-needed shift from employer’s centred labour legislation to labour legislation that emphasises on rights of workers.
Practical implications
This study enables foreign and local employers and workers operating in Mauritius to understand and be acquainted with the new provisions on employment laws in force in the country.
Originality/value
This study is currently amongst the few available legal literatures on worker’s rights in Mauritius which adds to its originality. In addition, it is proposed as a building block on which further research on employment laws can be invited.
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Elen Riot, Emmanuelle Rigaud and Ilenia Bua
The purpose of the paper is to describe the attempt of a family champagne house to redefine its business organization as a family in a large family of families. This choice…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to describe the attempt of a family champagne house to redefine its business organization as a family in a large family of families. This choice involves defining their activities as entrepreneuring in a specific time and space that all actors experience as their sensible reality. To describe the whole process, the authors call this ensemble a “chronotope,” including the same space and time as part of a common story. The authors assess this narrative strategy in reference to both past conflict in the champagne business and to the present crisis caused by the pandemic in addition to a series of social, economic and environmental changes in the environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The design of the paper corresponds to the case of a champagne family house in its environment with a longitudinal, processual approach of the family business venture before and especially after its sale and buyback by the family. The authors use Bakhtin to insist on the fictional nature of the account of most events as most protagonists adopt different perspectives. The Taittinger family, at the head of the trade house, creates a story that fits in all these perspectives and makes sense to overcome key issues in the business.
Findings
Our findings illustrate the role of the chronotope as a way to broaden the scope of inter- and intra-family relations. This concept also shows the importance of shared experiences, stories and crafted practices to sustain collective work and the meaning associated with the result of this work, in this case, champagne wine. The authors also show the different styles of chronotopes and their role in binding together actors in relation to the transformation of their activities.
Research limitations/implications
The research limitations are of two kinds. The first limitation comes from the choice to focus on the Taittinger family house, as it tends to focus the analysis on their point of view. The second limitation is due to the persistence of the pandemic situation that makes it difficult to test the chronotope idea as it is quite recent. Because of the current pandemic, it is complicated to anticipate what the future could look like and therefore, to imagine the future dimension of the chronotope. To overcome this limit, the authors suggest different scenario that leaves open different possibilities.
Practical implications
The practical implications of this paper could be to see how family business entrepreneurs may benefit from designing their strategy as a rich personal fiction in reference to a chronotope instead of referring to storytelling, communication and brand management or even competition strictly speaking. In turbulent times and to face grand challenges, long-term collaborations require stronger ties and imagination without leaving out emotions. Yet the entrepreneurs may become a victim of their own fictions if stakeholders perceive contradictions or if they were to dislike the new episodes the family invents.
Social implications
The social implications of this case study show the role of business relations built on fiction reflecting strong ties and shared processes such as entrepreneuring in the world of heritage goods where sustainability and endurance matter. This perspective insists on a shared story and it contrasts with more discontinued approaches based on disruptive innovation, opportunism and competitiveness in turbulent times. The chronotope does not ineluctably evolve in different ways, making actors’ perspective shrink, expand or exile. Family entrepreneuring may actively influence this transformation and they may also be framed by it.
Originality/value
The originality of the paper comes from the description of a family business in its environment as a chronotope. Reflecting how related actors in a business field like champagne co-construct a representation, the authors looked for a concept that would accurately reflect this vision, researchers chose the concept of “chronotope,” borrowing from narrative approaches. This approach is transdisciplinary. It is also an attempt to bring researchers at work closer to what actors in the field experiment with and find inspiration in.
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Alton Y.K. Chua and Dion H. Goh
This paper aims to examine a flagging but yet‐to‐be abandoned knowledge management (KM) project at a healthcare organisation in Asia through a case study approach.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine a flagging but yet‐to‐be abandoned knowledge management (KM) project at a healthcare organisation in Asia through a case study approach.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi‐structured interviews with a variety of stakeholders familiar with the project were conducted. Additionally, archival data in the form of email correspondences, presentation materials and web sites were collected to triangulate against the responses given by the interviewees.
Findings
The findings which are validated against a theoretical KM failure framework afford a nuanced perspective of how the failure factors identified in the framework were germane to the case.
Practical implications
By exposing these factors, administrators and managers in the healthcare industry who intend to implement KM projects can be better informed of the risks involved. For researchers, this paper serves as a call for a greater inquiry into KM projects in the healthcare industry that are facing impending failures.
Originality/value
This paper reveals that KM project failure is a reality with which administrators, managers and researchers have to reckon.
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Nursing, as a gendered occupation, is one that requires vast amounts of emotional labor to be performed. As careworkers, nurses are required to assume multiple roles at work…
Abstract
Nursing, as a gendered occupation, is one that requires vast amounts of emotional labor to be performed. As careworkers, nurses are required to assume multiple roles at work: medical expert, companion, and personal care provider. Roles, or expected behaviors associated with different statuses, have the potential to spillover between work and home environments. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate how nurses perceive their role-taking and emotional labor processes to influence experiences of work–family spillover.
Rooted in interactionist role theory, this investigation seeks to qualitatively examine how nurses assign meaning to their various roles and how they perceive their roles to influence work–family spillover. Using audio diary and interview data, this chapter proposes that nurses who practice role-person merger (Turner, 1978) and empathic role-taking (Shott 1979) will also perceive work–family spillover to be related to their caretaking roles as nurses. Three distinct themes emerged in this qualitative analysis related to how experiences of work–family spillover are influenced by the emotional labor demands of the job and the practice of empathic role-taking by nurses: (1) spillover related to required emotional labor is experienced both positively and negatively; (2) nurses actively exercise personal agency in an attempt to decrease negative spillover; and (3) nurses reported increased work–family spillover when they practiced empathic role-taking.
This analysis extends the literature in this area by demonstrating the connection between the structural influences on emotion, the individual perceptions of roles, and the subsequent experiences of work–family spillover.
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Abstract
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Kelly Basile, T. Alexandra Beauregard, Esther Canonico-Martin and Kylee Gause
This study aims to explore how working parents use personal technology to manage parenting responsibilities and to identify how technology use might help to support work–family…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how working parents use personal technology to manage parenting responsibilities and to identify how technology use might help to support work–family balance.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth telephone interviews with US and UK working parents with children under the age of 18 were conducted.
Findings
Findings suggest that personal technology can facilitate work and family activities and reduce work–family conflict by enabling parents to perform certain parenting duties remotely. However, parental attitudes toward technology and children’s rights to privacy influence both technology use and work and family outcomes.
Practical implications
By better understanding employee personal technology use, and how this use facilitates reduced conflict between work and family roles, organizations might look to creatively expand their benefits offerings to include access/discounts to personal technology platforms that support parenting activities (e.g. Uber One, Amazon Prime and DoorDash).
Originality/value
While substantial research has been conducted on employee use of work-enabled technology to facilitate work–life balance, less attention has been paid to how working parents are using personal forms of technology to achieve this same outcome. This exploratory study establishes certain parenting functions that are facilitated by personal technology use and identifies some parental attitudes that influence technology adoption.
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Philippe Very, Emmanuel Metais, Serigne Lo and Pierre-Guy Hourquet
Anticipating mergers and acquisitions (M&A) helps executives and investors to design their firms’ strategies and decide on their investments. However, a review of the literature…
Abstract
Anticipating mergers and acquisitions (M&A) helps executives and investors to design their firms’ strategies and decide on their investments. However, a review of the literature shows that we know relatively little about the determinants of M&A activity, and that former research often falls short of theoretical foundations. Hence the question: in what conditions can we make accurate practical predictions of M&A activity? Relying on neo-institutional theory, we suggest that M&A activity gains from being predicted at national level and that its determinants tend to depend on the country under scrutiny. We also draw on economic contagion theory pertaining to linkages between national economies to identify possible foreign institutional influences on a country's M&A activity. We tested our framework in three countries, the United States, the UK, and Japan, with a prediction model based on the Kalman filter that is rarely used in the field of international business. Our findings broadly corroborate our hypotheses, show the relevance of neo-institutional theory for studying the topic, and confirm that accurate practical predictions of M&A activity can be made at national level.
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