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Article
Publication date: 1 May 2001

JOHN I. MESSNER and VICTOR E. SANVIDO

This paper presents an organization based information architecture (OBIA) that defines a structure for information needed to address the strategic decision process of evaluating…

1675

Abstract

This paper presents an organization based information architecture (OBIA) that defines a structure for information needed to address the strategic decision process of evaluating and selecting projects to pursue. The project evaluation process requires information that has not been well defined by project specific information structures developed in previous information modelling efforts. The information in the OBIA is separated into five main categories: organization, commitment, process, environment, and facility. The OBIA categories were identified through expert interviews. The model was then evaluated through a detailed analysis of 10 project case studies. Each case study focused on the evaluation of a particular project from one organization's perspective. A method of applying the model to analyse projects is presented. The structure is also believed to be applicable for other strategic decision types including strategic planning and market selection.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 8 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 November 2011

Chuan Chen and John Messner

The decision on market entry mode, or how to enter a selected market, is of critical importance for international contractors' profit making and sustainable growth. Based on a…

4152

Abstract

Purpose

The decision on market entry mode, or how to enter a selected market, is of critical importance for international contractors' profit making and sustainable growth. Based on a previous study, which successively identified ten basic entry modes specifically for international construction markets, this paper aims to focus on differentiating these entry modes in terms of organizational setting characteristics, compatibility, transferability, feasibility regarding different markets, and strategic effects so as to develop a systematic and comprehensive selection method for international construction market entry modes.

Design/methodology/approach

Market entry cases were collected through extensive archival analysis and interviews of practitioners. By a comparative analysis, how the entry modes differ by organizational setting characteristics is analyzed, and how they can be combined or sequenced to deliver a market entry process is empirically explored. The strategic effects which constitute the basis for selection among the entry modes and their combinations are identified, which include risk exposure, return, resource commitment, control, and flexibility.

Findings

How the basic entry modes can be combined and sequenced is mapped. The applicability of selected entry modes regarding 42 main country markets is reported. It is found that mobile entry modes and permanent entry modes differ in resource commitment, investment risk and strategic flexibility. Based on the results of the comparative case study, a process model for market entry mode selection is proposed.

Originality/value

The study provides theoretical implications for future studies to develop the market entry mode selection method. Practitioners can also obtain a better understanding of the relationship between the basic entry modes as well as the constraints and principles governing the selection between them.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 18 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 February 2021

Paul D. Ahn and Danture Wickramasinghe

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how big data analytics pushed the limits of individuals' accountability as South Korea tried to control and contain coronavirus disease…

2000

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how big data analytics pushed the limits of individuals' accountability as South Korea tried to control and contain coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors draw upon Deleuzo-Guattarian framework elaborating how a surveillant assemblage was rhizomatically created and operated to monitor a segment of the population holding them accountable. Publicly available secondary data, such as press release from the government and media coverage, were used.

Findings

A COVID-19 Smart Management System and a Self-Quarantine Safety Protection App constituted a surveillance assemblage operating in a “state-form”. This comprises the central government departments, local councils, policing systems, providers of telecommunication and financial services, and independent groups of people. This assemblage pushed the limits of accountability as individuals who tested positive or might bear possible future risks of the infection and transmission were held accountable for their locations and health conditions.

Practical implications

Policymakers may consider constructing this type of state-form for containing and controlling pandemics, such as COVID-19, while dealing with the issue of undermined privacy.

Social implications

The mass may consider to what extent individuals' personal information should be protected and how to hold the governments accountable for the legitimate use of such information.

Originality/value

While accountability studies have largely focussed on formal organisations, the authors illustrated how a broader context of a state-form, harnessing big data analytics, pushes the limits of accountability.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 34 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Reflections on Sociology of Sport
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-643-3

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1992

John Conway O'Brien

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balanceeconomics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary toman′s finding the good life and society enduring…

1158

Abstract

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 19 no. 3/4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 10 November 2016

Jeffrey Montez de Oca

This chapter provides readers with a summary of sport sociology in the United States. It begins with a brief overview of sport in the United States before describing the…

Abstract

This chapter provides readers with a summary of sport sociology in the United States. It begins with a brief overview of sport in the United States before describing the development of the sociology of sport in the United States and some of the major contemporary patterns in sport research. They key movement in US sport sociology was the critical-cultural turn that took place during the 1980s and 1990s when critical theory and feminism became dominant approaches to research. Scholarship in the 21st century has largely developed upon that turn and is generally qualitative and cultural. Contemporary US sport sociology is a critical endeavor heavily influenced by cultural studies, post-structuralism, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, post-colonial theory, and theories of globalization. Despite a fairly consistent approach to sport research in the United States, sport sociology remains contentious and in disunity. This chapter argues that the contention and disunity results from broader structural patterns that guide sport sociologists’ social actions.

Details

Sociology of Sport: A Global Subdiscipline in Review
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-050-3

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 April 2024

John Millar and Richard Slack

This paper aims to examine sites of dissonance or consensus between global investor responses to the draft standards, International Financial Reporting Standards S1 (IFRS…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine sites of dissonance or consensus between global investor responses to the draft standards, International Financial Reporting Standards S1 (IFRS) (General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information) and IFRS S2 (Climate-related Disclosures), issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

Design/methodology/approach

A thematic content analysis was used to capture investor views expressed in their comment letters submitted in the consultation period (March to July 2022) in comparison to the ex ante position (issue of draft standards, March 2022) and ex post summary feedback (ISSB staff papers, September 2022) of the ISSB.

Findings

There was investor consensus in support of the ISSB and the development of the draft standards. However, there were sites of dissonance between investors and the ISSB, notably regarding the basis and focus of reporting (double or single/financial materiality and enterprise value); definitional clarity; emissions reporting; and assurance. Incrementally, the research further highlights that investors display heterogeneity of opinion.

Practical and Social implications

The ISSB standards will provide a framework for future sustainability reporting. This research highlights the significance of such reporting to investors through their responses to the draft standards. The findings reveal sites of dissonance in the development and alignment of draft standards to user needs. The views of investors, as primary users, should help inform the development of sustainability-related standards by a global standard-setting body apposite to current policy and future reporting requirements, and their usefulness to users in practice.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper makes an original contribution to the comment letter literature, hitherto focused on financial reporting with a relative lack of investor engagement. Using thematic analysis, sites of dissonance are examined between the views of investors and the ISSB on their development of sustainability reporting standards.

Article
Publication date: 22 June 2021

Ivo De Loo and Pieter Kamminga

During choir rehearsals, a conductor continuously holds choir members accountable for what they do and how they sing. Hence, members are held accountable through action. This…

Abstract

Purpose

During choir rehearsals, a conductor continuously holds choir members accountable for what they do and how they sing. Hence, members are held accountable through action. This allows a conductor to emphasize his/her expertise and underline his/her authority. Choir members typically respond in certain ways when this is done, for instance by commenting on the feedback they receive or by trying to improve their singing. The interplay between these accounts, how they develop over time, and what they (do not) accomplish in terms of human relatedness are the focus of this study. We use Bauman's (1993) conceptualization of social space to investigate these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

By providing reasons for their conduct and behaving in a certain way, a conductor and choir members, but also a choir's management, can alter their position in social space. Thereby, they solidify or change how they relate to other individuals in the choir. Bauman assumes that processes of social spacing require so-called “misunderstandings”. We examine seven misunderstandings that occurred in a particular rehearsal of a top-level amateur choir, analyzing their impact on human relatedness. Video analysis methods, interviews and photo-elicitation are the main research methods used.

Findings

We find both short-term and long-term effects of misunderstandings on human relatedness, and offer two extensions of Bauman's (1993) conception of social space. Firstly, we assert that there is a reflective side to processes of social spacing that needs to be taken into account when changes in human relatedness are discussed. Secondly, we find that the emotional impact of accountability on how individuals behave ought not to be underestimated, as this can have lasting effects on how people relate to one another.

Originality/value

This research makes two contributions to the extant literature. It is shown how accountability through action unfolds when people engage in leisurely activity, and how this affects the way they relate to one another – in sometimes unintentional and unpredictable ways. It also extends a well-known theoretical framework on social space that has seen little application in the accounting literature. This framework is adapted so that it may be used more fruitfully in future accounting studies.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 35 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Sport, Gender and Mega-Events
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-937-6

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1981

John Conway O'Brien

The purpose of this article is to suggest a solution to the quandary from which the economist appears unable or unwilling to extricate himself. The quandary is his own production…

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to suggest a solution to the quandary from which the economist appears unable or unwilling to extricate himself. The quandary is his own production. On the one hand, the economist is jealous of his position as scientist, a disinterested pursuer of the truth, and on the other hand, he has an irresistible urge to use his knowledge as an economist for the purpose of relieving society, and, indeed, civilisation of its social ills. To suggest how social ills may be cured is to define goals to be reached. To choose goals is to make value judgements. There is no quandary where the economist as economist simply makes value judgments and still adopts the posture of the scientist. Such dualism, however, incurs the displeasure of those of a critical turn of mind. It actually brings forth censure and suggestions that value judgments should be openly made.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 8 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

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