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21 – 30 of over 5000
Article
Publication date: 4 April 2016

Uni Sallnäs

Although it has been suggested that shippers’ demands regarding environmental practices appear to have an impact on the environmental work of LSPs, limited attention has been…

1637

Abstract

Purpose

Although it has been suggested that shippers’ demands regarding environmental practices appear to have an impact on the environmental work of LSPs, limited attention has been given to environmental practices in the relationships between LSPs and shippers. The purpose of this paper is to explore how dependencies between LSPs and shippers can influence the way in which environmental practices are coordinated in the relationships between them.

Design/methodology/approach

Four dyadic case studies, each consisting of one LSP and one shipper, provide the empirical basis for this paper.

Findings

Two types of dependencies are suggested as having an influence over the coordination of environmental practices in LSP-shipper relationships: dependence between LSPs and shippers as such; and dependence with regard to specific environmental practices. In addition, the environmental ambition of the actors is found to be of relevance when LSPs and shippers coordinate environmental practices between them. Based on these parameters, different coordination mechanisms for environmental practices in LSP-shipper relationships are discussed.

Research limitations/implications

The research is limited to four cases in a Swedish context. Additional cases might provide other insights into LSP-shipper relationships and thereby lead to modifications of the proposed conceptual framework.

Practical implications

The results can help both LSPs and shippers improve their work with environmental practices through the use of the appropriate coordination mechanisms in their inter-organisational relationships.

Originality/value

Contrary to previous research, which mainly takes one party’s perspective, this paper takes a dyadic approach and thereby adds valuable knowledge to the inter-organisational aspects of LSPs’ environmental work.

Details

International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, vol. 46 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0960-0035

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 September 2013

Chokri Zanzouri and Jean-Charles Francois

This paper aims to analyze the mechanisms of knowledge capitalization, sharing and creation through the information systems between actors of a collaborative R&D project within a…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze the mechanisms of knowledge capitalization, sharing and creation through the information systems between actors of a collaborative R&D project within a cluster.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative approach based on case study mobilizing the following research tools: semi-structured interviews, documentary study and direct observation.

Findings

Better understanding of the dynamics of knowledge capitalization, sharing and creation in firms via the R&D projects within clusters.

Practical implications

The case study may help companies to better manage its R&D projects through an optimization of KM practices. This can increase their innovative capacity through improved understanding of factors that can stimulate or inhibit knowledge capitalization, sharing and creation.

Originality/value

The theoretical framework, especially the SECI model and the KBV approach seems to be useful to improve the understanding of KM practices in the context of collaborative R&D projects. This understanding may allow developments at the companies' ability to innovate through knowledge creation.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 19 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 17 October 2018

Oana Brindusa Albu and Leopold Ringel

The chapter uses a comparative case study design to address the mutations and trajectories of transparency in two organizations. We chose organizations that are similar in that…

Abstract

The chapter uses a comparative case study design to address the mutations and trajectories of transparency in two organizations. We chose organizations that are similar in that they favor extensive forms of self-disclosure, but also different in terms of which sector they inhabit, audiences, and organization type: the Pirate Party of Germany and the lobby organization Epsilon. The findings, in close dialog with different threads in the transparency literature, unveil three crucial dimensions in which transparency regimes are likely to trigger unintended consequences: first, organizations have to cope with the tension between the disclosure of internal information on the one hand, and the need to appear consistent in public on the other. Second, transparency strategies can, however, turn into surveillance and trigger new forms of data ordering, sorting, and aggregating practices. Third, disclosure practices create and undermine complex hierarchies and power relations for organizational members. The comparison of the cases demonstrates that it is crucial to observe the practical implications and multiple trajectories of transparency practices.

Details

Toward Permeable Boundaries of Organizations?
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-829-3

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 December 2022

Silvio Cardinali, Alessandro Pagano, Elisa Carloni, Marta Giovannetti and Lorenzo Governatori

This study aimed to provide an exploratory analysis of digitalization processes in small professional service firms (SPSFs) by examining their main drivers and barriers and their…

2702

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to provide an exploratory analysis of digitalization processes in small professional service firms (SPSFs) by examining their main drivers and barriers and their impact on customer management practices, considering the intra-organizational, inter-organizational and service offering dimensions.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopted a qualitative, exploratory and inductive research methodology based on in-depth interviews with 19 owners or consultants of small tax/accounting firms, focusing on the role of digitalization in their internal and external processes.

Findings

The findings reveal external and internal barriers to and drivers of digitalization, as well as its effects on customer management practices. They also reveal the emergence of tensions related to the intra-organizational, inter-organizational and service offering dimensions.

Originality/value

This work contributes to the research on the role of digital technologies in the professional service sector, with a focus on SPSFs, which has thus far received limited attention. This research highlights the complexity of combining increasingly standardized processes and services with the need to maintain flexibility and informality in internal and external interactions.

Details

Journal of Service Theory and Practice, vol. 33 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-6225

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2005

Sven Modell

To examine the political and institutional processes surrounding the construction of consumer‐orientated performance measurement (PM) practices in the Swedish university sector.

5111

Abstract

Purpose

To examine the political and institutional processes surrounding the construction of consumer‐orientated performance measurement (PM) practices in the Swedish university sector.

Design/methodology/approach

A longitudinal case study in the Swedish university sector drawing on neo‐institutional sociology (NIS) and adopting an organisational field‐level perspective.

Findings

Particular attention is paid to the political interplay between different actors competing to dominate the representation of student interests in this organisational field, the strategic discourses invoked to legitimise their actions and the unfolding (re‐)construction of PM practices, but also how this interplay is conditioned by institutionalised structures and existing power relationships. The findings suggest that the relative inertia in developing more consumer‐orientated PM is due in large part to the difficulties for an emerging challenger in constructing a legitimate power base enabling it to fully exploit institutional inconsistencies and the ability of a dominant incumbent organisation to accommodate seemingly incompatible institutional pressures.

Originality/value

The study provides deeper and more process‐orientated insights into the problems of translating consumerist notions into public sector PM practices than much prior research on the topic and explains this with reference to macro‐ rather than micro‐level (intra‐organisational) processes.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 18 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 June 2022

Alexander Serenko

The purpose of this Real Impact Viewpoint Article is to analyze the phenomenon of the Great Resignation from the knowledge management perspective.

5658

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this Real Impact Viewpoint Article is to analyze the phenomenon of the Great Resignation from the knowledge management perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

It applies the knowledge-based view of the firm to the notion of the Great Resignation, reviews the extant literature and relies on secondary data.

Findings

The Great Resignation has created numerous knowledge-related impacts on the individual, organizational and national levels. On the individual level, because of an accelerating adoption of freelancing, the future may witness an expansion of the category of the knowledge worker and a growing need for personal knowledge management methods and information technologies. Organizational effects include knowledge loss, reduced business process efficiency, damaged intra-organizational knowledge flows, lower relational capital, lost informal friendship networks, difficulty attracting the best human capital, undermined knowledge transfer processes and knowledge leakage to competition. Countries may also witness the depletion of national human capital.

Practical implications

Managers should learn how to use the available human capital more efficiently; realize the importance of universal succession planning programs; automate knowledge-centric business processes; facilitate knowledge-based IT initiatives by implementing self-functioning virtual communities, including enterprise social networks; restructure organizations to optimize intra-organizational knowledge flows; adjust strategies, products and target markets based on the available human capital; and create telecommuting conditions for people with disabilities who cannot be physically present. Knowledge management scholars are presented with a unique opportunity to convert the numerous theoretical insights accumulated within the boundaries of their discipline into practical application to facilitate the Great Knowledge Revolution.

Originality/value

This viewpoint offers managerial recommendations and inspires future Great Resignation investigations.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 27 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 April 2023

Elisabete Correia, Susana Garrido and Helena Carvalho

This paper proposes a framework for the implementation of sustainability practices by individual companies and corresponding supply chains (SCs), considering the various SC tiers…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper proposes a framework for the implementation of sustainability practices by individual companies and corresponding supply chains (SCs), considering the various SC tiers, the three dimensions of sustainability and the following critical areas: Governance, Product and Process, Customers and Suppliers Management, and Stakeholder focus.

Design/methodology/approach

Using several case studies of small- and medium-size companies, a qualitative methodology is used to develop the proposed framework.

Findings

The analysis of these case studies makes it possible to identify the sustainability practices that are the most important for practitioners, thereby reducing the number of sustainability practices specified in the literature and giving some insights regarding which should be used in addressing critical areas. A set of guidelines and actions is also suggested for managers to continue the path of sustainability.

Research limitations/implications

Further studies in other cultural and national realities and industrial contexts are desirable to assess the proposed framework's suitability and the results obtained.

Practical implications

The results of this study show that the practices implemented are highly dependent on the resources that the company can mobilize and, on the choices, and commitment to sustainability on the part of top management.

Originality/value

The authors propose a framework to help individual companies and corresponding SCs to implement sustainability practices considering the various dimensions of sustainability, critical areas and SC's various partners.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. 35 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 January 2007

Marie Koulikoff‐Souviron and Alan Harrison

This paper aims to explore the influence of human resource (HR) practices in shaping inter‐organisational supply relationships, and to describe the extent to which supply partners…

2296

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the influence of human resource (HR) practices in shaping inter‐organisational supply relationships, and to describe the extent to which supply partners seek to adapt their internal HR practices to the external relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Inter‐organisational relationships are known to be multi‐dimensional in nature. Using seven dimensions to collect empirical evidence, the focus was on a dyadic supply relationship as the unit of analysis. A total of 48 interviews was undertaken from informants in both organisations.

Findings

It is shown that the supply relationship tends to be taken for granted at operational levels, and not subject to the relatively high levels of strategic alignment to be found at senior levels in both organizations. Operational aspects of the relationship are tested primarily in failure mode when poorly prepared to respond, for example, as a result of facility breakdowns and quality problems. Inter‐organisational HR practices were relatively weakly prioritised and – despite their acknowledged importance at operator level – were not clearly identified and supported in the way that intra‐organisational practices were.

Originality/value

An in‐depth, operations‐based study of HR practices has been undertaken in a reciprocally interdependent supply relationship from the perspectives of both partners.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 January 2012

Victor Guang Shi, S.C. Lenny Koh, James Baldwin and Federica Cucchiella

The aim of this paper is to conceptualise a structural model of natural resource based green supply chain management (GSCM), and its relationship, with an indication of cause and…

10919

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to conceptualise a structural model of natural resource based green supply chain management (GSCM), and its relationship, with an indication of cause and effect, to relevant performance measures and drivers.

Design/methodology/approach

The literature, describing GSCM from a natural resource based view (NRBV), along with performance measures and institutional drivers, is critically evaluated and used to develop the model.

Findings

Constructs are identified in terms of intra‐ and inter‐organisational environmental practices, performance measures and institutional drivers. Causal relationships, within and between the constructs, are also proposed in the form of hypotheses.

Research limitations/implications

At this stage the model is purely conceptual and the causal relationships are only proposed. Empirical tests of the model and hypotheses are required.

Practical implications

On empirical verification, this work can furnish managers with validated measurement scales to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in their GSCM implementation and determine how firms can successfully implement GSCM to promote sustainable industrial development.

Originality/value

GSCM from within the NRBV perspective, and incorporating performance measures and institutional drivers, has yet to be comprehensively synthesised in a coherent model. This conceptual work is the first step in that direction.

Article
Publication date: 19 May 2022

Per Christian Ahlgren and Johnny Lind

The purpose of this paper is to review the Nordic research on accounting in inter-organizational relationships (IORs) and relates the Nordic contributions to the international…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review the Nordic research on accounting in inter-organizational relationships (IORs) and relates the Nordic contributions to the international literature. Additionally, it examines alternative approaches to the understanding of accounting in IORs and proposes some directions for future research.

Design/methodology/approach

Thirty-one papers were identified and assessed in terms of their topic, inter-organizational setting, theoretical approach, research methods and results. This study followed a six-step process from formulating objectives, through establishing inclusion and exclusion criteria, to paper selection and mutual assessments.

Findings

The Nordic literature presents a distinct approach to the understanding of accounting in IORs. The Nordic studies are characterized by theoretical pluralism, in-depth case studies and an interest towards micro-processes in a variety of inter-organizational settings and from the point of view of multiple parties.

Originality/value

The authors propose two specific areas of research: the interconnections between accounting measures, monetary flows and value creation as well as the role of accounting in creating stability and instability in IORs. These areas of research emphasize a stronger engagement with the core issues of managing appropriation and cooperation concerns and provide an outlook for novel insights into classical issues and increased integration within the field.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 19 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

Keywords

21 – 30 of over 5000