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The digitization process has increased the pressure on large firms to transform. However, current frameworks on digital transformation are not well explaining what factors contribute to, or hinder, a firm's digital transformation. Innovation diffusion theories could complement existing frameworks, and for this reason, the purpose of this paper is to expand the existing body of knowledge on what contributes to, or hinders, an industrial firm's digital transformation by applying a validated framework based on innovation diffusion theories on two pioneer cases: General Electric and Siemens EHR/Health Services.

The framework used in this paper is based on several years' empirical studies and iterative literature reviews on innovation diffusion theories. Further, each use case is based on literature reviews and unique empirical data, collected by the authors of this paper as a result of taking active part of respective company's multi-years transformation.

Common drivers of, and clear inhibitors to the two firms' transformation, were identified. The innovation diffusion framework was found to work very well in identifying those factors.

The implications are that researchers better can analyze/explain a digital transformation of a firm, and business managers can better plan or improve their firms' transformation processes.

The theoretical contributions of this paper are two: first, complement existing frameworks with a validated framework for innovation diffusion; second, provide an extension of our body of knowledge on factors that contributes to, or hinders, industrial firm's digital transformation.

JoAnn Wypijewski, reflecting on the experience of workers laid off from General Electric’s (GE) Bloomington, Indiana refrigerator plant, as GE announced profits of $12.7 billion, and the relocation of half the production to Celaya, Mexico, asks: What will it take to match fire with fire at GE, not just in Bloomington but everywhere? Twenty years ago, Jack Welch openly articulated a strategy for taking the company to where it is today. The GE unions never developed a parallel strategy, and 100,000 lost jobs later, most of them still haven’t shed their faith in what the AFL-CIO likes to call “high-road capitalism.” During the 2000 national contract talks, Robert Thayer, the Machinists’ representative to the CBC, was trying to convince the company to agree not to interfere in future unionization drives, arguing that a “contract is a partnership, not a hindrance.” To which the company coolly asserted, “GE has never been neutral and doesn’t intend to be neutral” (Wypijewski, 2001, p. 22).GE has become an icon of global capital mobility and union avoidance. However, GE’s current capacities can be traced back to a long term, explicit strategy of corporate reorganization initiated in the 1940s. At that time GE was a vertically integrated manufacturing conglomerate, based in a series of huge, northern U.S. plants, organized at extremely high density by the left and militant UE. In the sixty years since, GE has transformed itself into a networked and globalized conglomerate, whose manufacturing capacity has been relocated endlessly, first into smaller U.S. greenfield sites and then increasingly overseas, decimating U.S. union density, and replacing UE with a patchwork of AFL-CIO affiliates that have embraced a far more conservative and limited vision of unionism. U.S. labor has been unable to halt this transformation.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

This paper seeks to examine the management of General Electric's (GE) Olympic sponsorship and provides insights related to the organizational and transformational leadership dynamics involved in the development, implementation and activation of the sponsorship, as well as the results of pull‐through marketing efforts and the sponsorship's impact on GE's global business practices, brand equity, and revenue.

The case‐study method was used due to the complexity and specificity of the topic, and the fact that only a discrete element of the sport sponsorship sector and a limited number of events and their relationships were addressed.

The primary objective of GE's The Olympic Partner (TOP) sponsorship was to enter the Chinese market and build brand equity across Asia. Using GE's proprietary WorkOut™ and Change Acceleration models, transformational leaders facilitated the development and implementation of a new integrated organizational structure that enabled GE to maximize branding opportunities in Asia, product/service pull‐through marketing opportunities, and return on objectives.

This paper demonstrates how GE has effectively modified the structure of its global sales unit, generated revenue, and increased brand recognition in emerging markets across Asia. GE's management of its TOP sponsorship represents an innovative model for Chief Financial Officers, Chief Marketing Officers, brand managers, and sport marketers considering a long‐term sponsorship investment.

Health Management and Leadership, Marketing Social Causes, Strategy, International Business.

Post-graduates, Practitioners.

General Electric has been operating in the Middle East, North Africa (MENA) region for over a century. GE is committed to corporate citizenship having launched ecomagination in 2005 and healthymagination in 2009. For sustainability, GE believes that both innovation and localization are critical. This case deals with contextualization of breast cancer campaign for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through healthymagination. Rania Rostom, Communications Director, Middle East, North Africa and Turkey region, GE, reviews the campaign implemented and looks at roll-out across the MENA region. The situation is unique, as breast cancer strikes women in the region ten years earlier than the West, and the cultural context does not allow the discussion of the topic in public. One of the peculiarities of this region was the high penetration of social media and its large adoption rate by the young. GE used a unique Facebook campaign to drive awareness on the topic, encourage screening appointments, seek treatment and reduce the discomfort associated with the process.

On completion of utilizing the case study as an exercise, students should be able to gain case-specific skills – critically examine the importance of the consumer behavior, health marketing, marketing strategy and aspects of international business in the Middle East, KSA, in particular, and demonstrate this by analyzing real regional/world examples using complex theoretical frameworks; identify examples of best practice and explain the dynamics toward consumer behavior, health marketing, marketing strategy, international business with reference to a range of theoretical models and apply these in a meaningful way to the MENA region – discipline-specific skills – synthesize and critically evaluate a corpus of academic literature and government reports on consumer behavior, health marketing, marketing strategy, international business – and personal and key skills – reflect on the process of learning and undertake independent/self-directed learning (including time management) to achieve consistent, proficient and sustained attainment; work as a participant or leader of a group and contribute effectively to the achievement of objectives in the field of consumer behavior, health marketing, marketing strategy, international business.

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Summary It has been noticed that during electrolysis of zinc from sulphate solutions in the presence of Germanium, the utilisation of current varies with the change of concentration of Ge in the electrolyte, and from the neutral electrolyte it decreases with the increase of current which passed through the electrolyte. Therefore dependencies of current utilisation on concentration of acid and concentration of Ge in the electrolyte have been investigated. It has been found the current utilisation decreases when the acidity increases, the decrease being also proportional to the increase of concentration of Ge. The activity of Ge is the more intensive with the higher the acidity. The cause of the fact that concentration of Ge in the electrolyte remains constant after a certain duration of electrolysis has been explained, as well as that the absolute value of this concentration depends only on the initial concentration of Ge. It has been stated that deposition of Ge on the cathode ceases (either in the form of metal or hydride) when the electrolyte has reached an acidity value of about 120 g/l H2SO4.

In this paper, the authors will examine Welch's legacy and aftermaths, both for GE and more broadly within management practice and academic thought. As a complex character, indeed a person of many contradictions, the authors try to avoid polemics in this, instead focusing on his accomplishments and the unanswered questions about his impact.

This paper is a historical case using secondary and published materials to assess the case of Jack Welch's leadership of General Electric over the period 1981–2001.

Welch's proponents suggest he emphasized controlling corporate destiny, being open to new ideas, pursuing quality and low cost, having confidence, a vision founded on reality, a global focus and possessing energy and enthusiasm. However, his short-termist perspective undermined the long-term success of the company and his “win at any cost” mantra predisposed some employees to cutting ethical or environmental corners. As the market capitalization gains evaporated that had been used to justify the “end justifies the means” rationale, little is left of his legacy.

The paper discusses the implications of the GE case for issues associated with corporate governance, financialization and human resource management.

This is a timely reconsideration of the Jack Welch legacy two years after his death. In avoiding polemics and seeking a considered assessment of his positive and negative outcomes, the paper is an important addition to the research on Welch and American management thought.

GE Healthcare was on a continuous lookout for investing into new and innovative super value products for the Bottom of the Pyramid markets in India. After launching its first successful super value ECG machine Mac 400, GE had recently launched its twenty-fifth super value product a PET CT machine. Serving the BOP markets has its own unique challenges that may be different for each product that is placed in the market. However, GE has so far successfully sailed through all the challenges and developed a steep learning curve about BOP markets. However, it is now facing the challenge of ensuring sustainability of product pipeline. The company is also keen to exploit the opportunities for reverse innovation that super value products have provided. The company also wants to assess the disruptive impact of these products in domestic medical device markets as well as markets outside India.

This study jointly examines consumer attitudes towards gene-edited (GE) food and their preferences for labelling such products. Thus, it contributes to understanding the role of educational background, objective/subjective knowledge, environmental concern and socio-demographics in the context of GE food.

An online survey was administered to two generations of young individuals (millennials and Generation Z; n = 234) from two neighbouring European Union (EU) regions (Belgium and The Netherlands), which have a stringent policy on (labelling) genetically modified (GM) food. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and ordered logit models (OLMs) were employed to identify key determinants of attitudes towards GE food and GE labelling preferences, respectively.

Attitudes towards GE food were determined by environmental concern (negative) and objective knowledge (positive). Key factors influencing preferences for GE labelling were a non-hard-scientific background, knowledge about relevant policies and a negative attitude towards GE food. Preference for applying a similar labelling policy to both GM and GE was itself linked to having low, objective EU policy-related GM food knowledge and one's nationality.

This is one of the first studies to examine consumer attitudes towards GE food products, while also addressing a lack of research on GE food labelling preferences. By highlighting the preferences of young generations for a revised policy approach, this study sheds new light on the current GE debate, notably, by promoting a deeper understanding of a group which has so far received limited attention in the discourse on the acceptance of novel plant-breeding technologies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of Global Education (GE) from a “theory of action plan” and an “evolutionary and systems theory” approach as an educational perspective to cope with globalisation – more specifically, the challenges of globalisation. Moreover, an additional aim is to analyse the linkages of GE according to global society, global citizenship and transformative learning concepts.

The analysis is based on a literature review regarding the challenges of globalisation combined with the theoretical pattern of GE separated into the following dimensions: objective/issues, temporal, spatial and social based on Lang-Wojtasik (2012), which will be further complemented with approaches from Selby and Rathenow (2006).

GE is an educational perspective to cope with globalisation in consideration of different definitions and approaches of GE. The methods of GE, such as promoting a holistic view on the world, are designed based on the challenges of globalisation and, as a result, GE can provide perspectives for coping with globalisation.

The challenges of globalisation are more and more noticeable in daily life. Therefore, it seems meaningful to the authors to resume an educational concept dealing with these challenges.