Search results

This paper aims to explore the creation of shared value (Porter and Kramer, 2011) through technical education by analyzing key events and factors associated with the midsize firm IMCA and the Business Initiative for Technical Education (BITE), a private-public alliance in the Dominican Republic.

The paper results from a five-year longitudinal case study that included an embedded participant (the third author of the paper) and was based on structured and unstructured interviews, observations and multiple archival records. Thematic and content analyses were applied to most of these sources.

IMCA’s staffing needs and search for a solid competitive strategy (one dependent on qualified technicians able to provide multiple services) was the original driver of BITE. The Initiative managed to enlist a formidable alliance of stakeholders, engaged in systemic, bottom-up, “small wins” approaches that targeted not only contents but also pedagogies that transformed multiple polytechnic schools. The initiative has resulted in significant corporate economic benefits and is currently altering fundamental aspects of the technical education of an entire nation.

The research upon which the paper is based consists of a longitudinal case study comprising the years 2011-2015. BITE is a long-term project of which only the first stages have taken place.

The paper focuses specifically on two modalities of shared value creation: productivity in the value chain and local cluster development. It expands the understanding of important issues around shared value creation through private investment in (technical) education, particularly around the following dimensions: curricular and pedagogical transformation, stakeholder engagement and place/time scale. Insights may be of particular relevance for developing regions with significant educational needs.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the debate on “cosmopolitanism or globalization” by approaching this rich literature from cultural, ethical and governance angles, and by introducing key notions from the work that has taken place in the natural sciences, around the Anthropocene.

This paper is based on analytical tactics that draw on a literature review and thematic analysis.

The composite analytical “lens” is introduced here (crafted around cultural, ethical and governance angles) to approach the debate on “cosmopolitanism or globalization” plus the engagement with the literature on the Anthropocene, allow us to engage with current understandings of the global and the “planetary” that are at the heart of cosmopolitanism.

The paper deals with and merges two complex streams of literature (“cosmopolitanism or globalization” and the Anthropocene), and as such, needs to be seen as part of an initial, exploratory scholarly effort.

The analytical “lens” described here shall be of further use to develop current trends re-claiming cosmopolitanism for the study of organizations.

This work can help nurture a cosmopolitan sensitivity which celebrates difference, highlights expanded concerns for the “distant other” and fosters involvement in new forms of governance.

The approaches introduced here bring new angles to continue thinking about the planet as the “cosmos” of cosmopolitanism, and to explore new understandings around organizations and (global) responsibility.

The paper aims to focus on the role that cosmopolitanism and, in particular, “the cosmopolitan disposition” (Woodward et al., 2008) plays in the process of entrepreneurial business by transnational business elites in Dubai.

Adopting a relational perspective based on Bourdieu and Wacquant’s (1992) Reflexive Sociology, as well as an inductive design, the authors conducted 30 semi-structured interviews focusing on both expatriates and Emiratis (locals/nationals) who displayed key features of a transnational business elite.

The findings indicate that the cosmopolitan disposition is an asset for transnational business elites when they venture in the context of Dubai.

The findings would have to be further replicated in similar contexts, i.e. other major cities displaying similar cosmopolitan features with Dubai. A theoretical framework that calls for further study of transnational entrepreneurship via the lens of cosmopolitan disposition and Bourdieuan “habitus” is proposed.

The research outlines cosmopolitan skills for a transnational business elite which are required when entrepreneurial ventures are developed in the context of a city like Dubai.

Cosmopolitanism and transnational entrepreneurship change cities like Dubai around the world constantly. Therefore, this study aims at achieving a better understanding of these changes and the ways in which they occur.

Studies on transnational entrepreneurship have already adopted Bourdieu’s theory (1977/1986), but this is the first time the cosmopolitan perspective and disposition is researched using this approach.

With more than 332 signatories, the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) is probably the most solid initiative to inspire and champion responsible business education globally. The purpose of this paper is to examine the activities undertaken by the first intake of signatories – universities and business schools – with regard to each of the six principles (offering a systematic analysis and “distilled” categorization of those initiatives). It also aims to evaluate the difficulties and tensions that may be entailed in integrating PRME in both the strategic intent and daily operations of educational institutions, and how to overcome some of these. Finally, it aims to offer a critical reflection on the “non‐compliance and non regulatory/measurement” nature of PRME (the initiative assumes that signatories act on the basis of principled pragmatism), offering suggestions for improving the reporting mechanism on which the whole initiative is based.

The authors analyze the first 100 “Sharing Information on Progress” (SIP) reports uploaded to the PRME web site. These reports are the main mechanism established by the PRME Secretariat to build learning and accountability and allow signatories to communicate their progress. Elements from grounded theory and other qualitative analytical approaches were used to allow themes to emerge from within the (often messy and irregular) data from the reports. Graphical representations are also used.

Activities undertaken by PRME signatories are portrayed for each of the six principles: principle 1 on purpose (capabilities of students); principle 2 on values (incorporated in curriculum and academic activities); principle 3 on learning approaches; principle 4 on research (with sustainable, social, environmental and economic value); principle 5 on partnership (interaction with business managers); and principle 6 on dialogue (among key stakeholders). Tensions regarding ideology, integration and implementation are also identified, as well as possible weaknesses, e.g. on integrity, quality and reporting policies, in the current “SIP” framework.

This paper is the first scholarly work depicting comprehensively the activities of PRME signatories worldwide.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the relationships between advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) categories (stand-alone, intermediated and integrated systems) implementation and design, process and commercial benefits obtained.

A survey is designed with benefits gained from AMT implementation as well as its categories, which is applied to the maquiladora industry. A structural equation model with data from 383 responses is used to measure the relationship between AMT categories and benefits gained using nine hypotheses that are tested statistically significant using partial least squares. Also, using conditional probabilities, a sensitivity analysis reports how low and high levels from AMT implementation influence on the obtained benefits.

Integrated systems are the most important AMT for maquiladoras and have the strongest impact on design, processes and commercial benefits.

Data obtained support the model, but results may be different in another industrial sector and countries with different labor culture and technological level.

Managers in maquiladora industry must focus their attention on integrated manufacturing systems, because high implementation levels guarantee the biggest probability to gain benefits in design, production process and commercial.

The relationship between AMT and their benefits has not been measured in depth, and this paper contributes to understand that problem. In addition, this paper is the first to report a sensitivity analysis that enables managers to acknowledge the probability of obtaining certain benefits.

This paper examines the level of sustainability disclosures provided by Spanish hospitals using exclusively the information revealed in their institutional websites. Based on different levels of disclosure, the authors try to find the possible reasons why some Spanish hospitals reveal more sustainability information than others.

To achieve this goal, the authors conducted a content analysis of the official websites of all Spanish hospitals identified by the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality.

The results reveal that Spanish hospitals seem to use sustainability disclosures for different legitimizing purposes. In general, the results indicate that Spanish hospitals may be driven by symbolic rather than substantive actions to achieve legitimacy from stakeholders.

Due to the lack of empirical research on the hospital sector, more research is required to improve understanding of why hospitals disclose sustainability information or not.

In a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, one of the most time-consuming tasks is to identify and track the visible satellites. The paper aims to propose and examine in detail new and shorter identification patterns or lite pseudo-codes – pseudo-random numbers (PRNs) – that allow GPS receivers to reduce dramatically the computational effort to identify and track GPS satellites. Obtaining lite pseudo-codes is a multi-objective optimization problem that the paper resolves using genetic algorithms (GAs).

The lite PRNs are obtained by using NSGA-II and omni-optimizer multi-objective optimization techniques.

The new PRNs obtained with the proposed single/multi-objective solutions are always better than previously presented when the highest detection peak (DP) is required for the GPS receiver.

Results demonstrate that the problem of “obtaining lite pseudo-codes” is a multi-objective optimization problem. In other words, the solutions obtained with the single-objective approach could belong to a local minimum. The multi-objective approach provides a better solution than the single-objective approach in a 37 percent of the satellites while in other cases the multi-objective approach reaches the same DPs with a similar noise.

Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development defines 17 goals with 169 targets in economic, social and environmental fields to guarantee human rights. Universities and companies are two driving forces for achieving these Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this context, university research and, specifically, business and management studies should include this new economic-social panorama. Focusing on business and management education, this study aims to analyze who can help to implement the SDGs and how.

A descriptive examination of the evolution of documents and journals on business and management education was performed. Next, a co-authorship analysis, studying the collaboration among researchers, was performed. Finally, a co-word analysis that identifies the main topics and relationships between them was developed.

This study’s results suggest the necessity of expanding collaboration networks between countries and institutions. The analysis also reveals two emergent topics: entrepreneurship and sustainability. Then, three lines for teaching business and management according to the SDGs are proposed: two regarding university-firm relationships – job creation and entrepreneurship – and the third regarding universities effects on society – including sustainability principles and actions in higher education.

The main contribution is to show the important role that universities, in general, and business and management education, in particular, play in achieving the SDGs. Universities must mobilize their managers, professors and students because implementing the SDGs is possible through coordinated and integrated participation.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse if citizens’ searches on the internet coincide with the services that municipal websites offer. In addition, the authors examine municipal webpage rankings in search engines and the factors explaining them.

The empirical study, conducted through a sample of Spanish city councils, contrasted if the information that can be found on a municipal website fits with citizens’ demands. This has been done by comparing the most-searched keywords with the contents of municipal websites.

A positive relationship between the supply and demand of municipal information on the internet has been found, but much can still be improved. Analysed administrations rank the basic data of the organisation, as well as some of the fundamental competences thereof, at the top in search engines, but the results are not entirely effective with some keywords still highly demanded by citizens, such as those related to employment or tourism. Factors explaining internet ranking include the number of pages of the municipal website, its presence in social networks and an indicator designed to measure the difficulty of ranking the municipal place-name.

The results obtained from this study provide valuable information for municipal managers. Municipal websites should not only include information in which citizens are interested, but achieve accessibility standards, have a responsive web design, and follow the rules of web usability. Additionally, they should be findable, which also requires improvement in terms of the design of the municipal website thinking in search engines, particularly in terms of certain technical characteristics that improve findability. A municipal website that wants to have a good positioning should increase its contents and attain the maximum degree possible of visibility in social networks.