Search results

Apprenticeships for higher education institutes (HEIs) at degree and postgraduate levels in the UK have been challenging to provide, requiring increasingly complex collaboration and investment. This questions longer-term viability, creating a new perspective investigating evidence of value and impact for UK HEIs. This integrative literature review examines existing apprenticeship literature and showcases new knowledge for HEIs to update and inform future decision-making. Knowledge created offers a new framework, an “apprenticeship knowledge-based checklist model” and a perspective to explore further.

This integrative literature review examines apprenticeship provision viability for UK HEIs across several disciplines since commencement.

Analysis of selected studies across three research themes critiques potential apprenticeship practice for HEIs: stakeholder collaboration, widening participation and work-integrated learning. Results provided a new integrated perspective via governance levels: strategic, academic department, and teaching team.

The research draws from multiple disciplines representing current literature in the HEI Apprenticeships field. However, the context in which programmes are delivered by HEIs and employers differs significantly, so factors continue to emerge.

Practical implications drawn from these findings aim to cultivate dialogue before embarking/withdrawing from HEI Apprenticeship programmes. It offers employers guidance expectations when partnering with university providers. For global apprenticeship provisions, it offers a checklist for re-valuating practice.

The research identified new knowledge implications from existing literature in a field experiencing rapid growth. It offers valuable contributions: a knowledge-based checklist model constructed for HEIs to evaluate existing and future viability provisions at each governance level. It is a catalyst for new practice approaches and an agenda for further research.

This paper draws on research undertaken for the State of Play in the Futures Field (SoPiFF) project and aims to explore the contribution of futures work to understanding and resolving aspects of the global problematique and to examine the social interests evident in futures work.

The project used an integral meta‐scanning framework to review publicly available futures material. The framework categorizes futures work according to organizational type, social interests, methods, domains and geographic location (details of the methodology are outlined in the accompanying introductory paper as well as on the web site created for the project).

The futures field has made a series of significant contributions to understanding the global problematique and has contributed to the pre‐conditions for its resolution. However, the bulk of mainstream futures work does little to improve the preparedness of humanity for looming future crises. More innovative futures work remains marginalized and largely ignored by the powerful and the wider public. There is a strong case for more effective political engagement than has occurred hitherto.

Further research is needed on shared definitions for the field, interactions with the media, public and other fields of enquiry and action, measurement of individual foresight capacity, strategies for achieving influence – particularly in the political sphere, the role of subcultures within the futures field and suitable publishing strategies.

The paper recommends specific actions to promote and publicize good work, provide annual digests of futures‐related information, develop and use focused briefings, provide support for “cutting‐edge” futures work, further develop advanced futures methods, create new alliances, build the social capacity for foresight and strengthen the nexus between foresight and philanthropy.

The paper uses an integral meta‐scanning framework to provide a novel analysis of the futures field. The findings will be of value to all futures and foresight practitioners that are interested in the future success of the field.

The purpose of this article was to examine how individual positive emotions and team work engagement (TWE) relate to the perceptions of team viability.

A total of 254 teams (N = 1,154 individuals) participated in this study, and a multilevel analysis was conducted of the effects of individual and team-level factors.

The multilevel analysis results suggest a partial compensatory effect. High levels of individual positive emotions and high TWE are associated with a positive effect on the perceptions of team viability. Simultaneously, being part of a highly engaged team has a protective effect on perceptions of team viability, when individuals experience low levels of positive emotions.

As the study was conducted with teams involved in a management simulation, generalizing the results to “real world” teams must be done with caution.

Nonetheless, these findings have important implications for managers of work groups. They highlight the need to consider collective states of work groups as relevant for their effectiveness, and suggest that promoting positive interactions between team members may result in gains in team viability perceptions, mostly when individual emotions are less positive.

We consider both individual and collective affective experiences at work, and focus on a less studied outcome, team viability. Additionally, we empirically demonstrate the relevance of collective states of teams for team members’ individual perceptions, as a top-down influence mechanism.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, all business sectors have critical needs. They face multiple challenges to restructuring their operations to build a resilient, cost-effective and sustainable supply chain. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the practice and the research gaps related to supply chains.

This research paper is influenced by a literature review of the past decade. This review paper incorporates industry challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, including future steps toward developing resilient supply chains in the new normal economy. The research provides a detailed framework for designing cost-effective survivable supply chains that withstand disruptions for the long term.

The proposed research focuses on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chains and attempts to bridge pre and post COVID-19 research and practice gaps. Post-COVID-19 resilient supply chains need to be transformed into survivable supply chains. The survivability of the supply chain can be achieved by combining both supply chain resilience and supply chain viability measures. To the best of the authors’ belief, this is the first study that grounds a theory to provide interconnection of five critical supply chain concepts to manage supply chain risk. This study is uniquely positioned to develop a theoretical framework to design a cost-effective, resilient and sustainable supply chain by establishing the interconnection among these concepts in supply chains. This framework helps practitioners to implement the key strategies at the operational, tactical and strategic levels that enhance maturity in supply chains.

The research findings are based on secondary reports such as industry reports, cases, research papers and expert opinions. The authors tried to consult with many companies. However, they were reluctant to share the recovery plan information from COVID. Also, as COVID still exists in many places in Canada, the authors could not gather every intended information from the companies. However, the authors have successfully shared the outcomes of this research with a reputed retail company in Canada. They recognized the importance of survivability in supply chains. Going forward, business organizations need to design cost-effective, sustainable and survivable supply chains.

The study attempts to unify current research dealing with supply chain resilience. The study concludes with the limitations of the current research. It highlights the prospects of future research and bridges the supply chain practice gaps from the challenges faced by industries due to COVID-19. The study contributes to the literature by identifying gaps to bridge the supply chain practice and reiterating new research directions to develop a cost-effective, survivable and sustainable supply chain.

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which organisational capabilities do impact the performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana.

A cross-sectional survey design was used for the study. Data was collected from 306 SMEs from different sectors of the economy. The partial least square structural equation modelling was used to analyse the relationships between organisational capabilities and SMEs’ performance measured by their financial viability.

The findings reveal as predicted that four out of the five organisational capabilities tested were indeed important predictors of SMEs’ financial viability. Specifically, managerial capability, supply chain capability, operations capability and marketing capability were found to positively and significantly impact SMEs’ financial viability. The findings further reveal that firm size does not moderate the relationship between these capabilities and financial viability.

This study was undertaken in a developing economy with peculiar business operating conditions and, thus, may limit the generalisability of the findings.

The findings suggest that key organisational capability development is critical for enhancing the financial viability of firms, confirming four of such critical capabilities that are needed by SMEs. The findings further suggest the need for firms irrespective of size to develop organisational capabilities.

This study has empirically established that developing managerial capability, supply chain capability, operations capability and marketing capability are important success factors if SMEs, irrespective of size, intend to enhance their financial viability.

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework based on the identification and examination of the mechanisms (termed “viability mechanisms”) under which market-shaping activities yield the emergence of a viable market: one able to adapt to the changing environment over time while remaining stable enough for actors to benefit from it.

This paper uses extant literature to build a conceptual framework identifying viability mechanisms for market shaping and a case illustration examining how a viable market for Finnish timber high-rise buildings was created. The case exemplifies how the identified viability mechanisms are practically manifested through proactive market shaping.

The proposed conceptual framework incorporates four viability mechanisms identified in the extant literature: presence of dissipative structures, consonance among system elements, resonance among system elements and reinforcing and balancing feedback loops. It illustrates how these mechanisms are manifested in a contemporary case setting resulting in a viable market.

First, firms and other market-shaping organizations should look for, or themselves foster, viability mechanisms within their market-shaping strategies. Second, as failure rates in innovation are extremely high, managers should seek to identify or influence viability mechanisms to avoid premature commercialization of innovations.

This study identifies how these viability mechanisms permit markets to emerge and survive over time. Further, it illuminates the workings of the non-linear relationship between actor-level market-shaping actions and system-level market changes. As such, it provides a “missing link” to the scholarly and managerial discourse on market-shaping strategies. Unlike much extant market-shaping literature, this study draws substantively on the systems literature.

This paper presents research into the use of the Viable Systems Model (VSM) in small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Research on the VSM has been focussed on large organisations. The purpose of this paper is to explore the usefulness of the VSM in diagnosing issues of viability in SMEs.

Case study research was undertaken in which semi structured diagnostic interviews took place with SMEs using the VSM as a diagnostic tool. The aim was to investigate whether the VSM would assist in diagnosing problems with viability and whether it could then prescribe and facilitate improvements in operations. Qualitative case study evidence is presented that shows the results of these interventions.

The paper reports some examples of operational problems that were exposed through the intervention process and shows some general conclusions to support the use of VSM for analysing operations and supporting small business viability. A number of “threats to viability” themes were apparent and these are discussed.

The semi‐structured interview protocol created for the research could be used to diagnose viability issues in other SMEs and thus is of practical relevance to other organisations.

The VSM originates from the theory of cybernetics which can be broadly defined as “the science of effective organisation”. Previous use of the model has focused upon the viability of large organisations; the applicability of the VSM in a small business operational context has received little attention. The paper demonstrates the benefits of the using the VSM to pinpoint problems that threaten SME viability.

This paper aims to provide a brief review of the literature on interorganizational relations in tourism over the past 75 years to understand the emerging focus on destination ecosystems. Based on these developments, the paper points to some issues that future research should consider.

This selective review provides building blocks for a contemporary view of destination ecosystems and the possibilities for promoting research on their viability.

The research on relationships between tourism firms considers co-operation as important and provides knowledge and theory that is complex addressing a vast range of foci. Future research should attempt to integrate emerging trends using meta-theory and possibly programmatic research.

This paper is brief in reviewing past trends to identify a few core areas for future directions in destination research and suggesting how this might be undertaken. However, this short paper is not exhaustive.

This paper directs attention to core aspects of destination ecosystems that (destination) managers and public sector representatives should consider in their decision-making to improve viability.

Social and environmental dimensions are explicitly addressed as important for destination ecosystem viability.

This paper points to some directions that future research and knowledge development should consider to develop conceptual and actionable knowledge further to promote viability in destination ecosystems.

El documento proporciona una breve revisión de la literatura sobre relaciones interorganizacionales en turismo durante los últimos 75 años para comprender el enfoque emergente en los ecosistemas de destino. Con base en estos desarrollos, el documento señala algunos temas que la investigación futura debería considerar.

Una revisión selectiva proporciona bloques de construcción para una visión contemporánea de los ecosistemas de destino y las posibilidades de promover su viabilidad.

Si bien las primeras investigaciones sobre las relaciones entre las empresas de turismo consideraron que la cooperación era importante, con el tiempo la investigación ha proporcionado conocimientos y teorías que son mucho más complejas al abordar una amplia gama de focos. La investigación futura debería intentar integrar las tendencias emergentes utilizando la metateoría y posiblemente la investigación programática.

de la investigación El estudio es breve al revisar las tendencias pasadas para identificar algunas áreas centrales para futuras direcciones en la investigación de destinos y sugiere cómo se podría llevar a cabo. Sin embargo, el papel corto no es exhaustivo.

El documento dirige la atención a los aspectos centrales de los ecosistemas de destino que los gerentes (de destino) y los representantes del sector público deben considerar en su toma de decisiones para mejorar la viabilidad.

Las dimensiones sociales y ambientales se abordan explícitamente como importantes para la viabilidad del ecosistema de destino.

El documento señala algunas direcciones que la investigación futura y el desarrollo del conocimiento deberían considerar para desarrollar aún más el conocimiento conceptual y práctico para promover la viabilidad en los ecosistemas de destino.

Notwithstanding the expected apparent benefits of mobile technologies (MTs) in the hotel industry, their adoption is slower than forecasted. This study aims to identify the challenges faced by hotel managers in adopting MTs in their industry, such that the authors may determine the strategic positions for adopting and managing MTs and build a frame of reference for hotel management practices.

The authors conducted a series of focus group interviews (FGIs) with the managers and executives of luxury hotels. FGIs were conducted in groups in a semi-structured format, asking questions about MT adoption in their hotels and the challenges they faced. The FGI transcripts were analyzed using a grounded theory approach.

Open and axial coding of FGI scripts revealed 15 underlying categories of challenges in adopting MTs in hotels. Subsequent selective coding revealed two underlying dimensions: viability-fit. With these two underlying dimensions, a strategic model for MT adoption is developed. This model identifies four MT adoption strategies in hotels: lookers, experimenters, explorers and leaders.

The model developed and presented herein may help analyze a hotel’s strategic positioning in adopting MT’s. Depending on the positional analysis results, hotel managers can appropriately decide resource mobilization priorities and deployment timing.

尽管酒店中的移动技术 (MT) 具有预期的明显行业优势, 它们的采用速度比预期的要慢。本研究旨在确定酒店经理在其行业中采用 MT 时面临的问题和挑战, 以便我们可以确定采用和管理 MT 的战略位置, 并为酒店管理实践建立参考框架。

作者与管理人员和豪华酒店的高管进行了一系列焦点小组访谈 (FGI) 。 FGI 以半结构化的形式分组进行, 询问关于他们酒店采用 MT 的问题以及他们面临的挑战。 FGI 的文字记录使用扎根理论方法进行分析。

FGI 脚本的开放和轴向编码揭示了 15 个潜在挑战类别酒店的 MT。随后的选择性编码揭示了两个潜在的维度：可行性, 匹配度。有了这两个基本维度, 就可以开发出采用 MT 的战略模型。这模型确定了酒店中的四种 MT 采用策略：观察者、实验者、探索者和领导者。

这里开发和展示的模型可以帮助分析酒店在采用MT的战略定位采用。根据定位分析结果, 酒店经理可以适当地决定资源调动优先事项和部署时间。