Search results

For more than a century, the corporation has shaped our thinking of organizations. This deeply institutionalized form is still regarded as both the iconic business organization and the core structural unit of our economic order. Today, however, it stands at a crossroads. Economic, social, and environmental failures of the recent past as well as misconduct and scandals are widely linked to inadequacies in this corporate form and its governance. The aim of this volume is to spark a debate within the field. In this introduction, we provide an outline of the current crisis and an overview of the interdisciplinary set of articles presented in this volume. We conclude with a view ahead and a plea for the acknowledgement of “alternatives.”

A paradigm shift is observed in the last decade where transactional marketing is taken over by relationship marketing. Customer relationship management (CRM) has been an integral part of a business strategy in the current era. CRM integrates product sales, product marketing and, most importantly, customer service in a seamless manner to generate value for the organization as well as for its customers in short a win-win situation. Profoundly, CRM needs to be a part of the top management agenda and driven top-down instead of an IT initiative. Industrial revolution 4.0 is characterized by cyber-physical systems. Internet of Things (IoT) is the digital technology for the present and future. IoT primarily aids in gathering real-time data and transmitting the same over the internet to a central repository for consuming the same in business models. Real-time customer data analytics can be performed by customer-centric organizations to enhance CRM.

Compares race relations in two suburban communities in order to show that middle‐class blacks meet with some success when they temporarily exchange their racial identity for a class‐based identity. Collects data through ethnography and individual interview to examine the conditions under which middle‐class blacks construct and assert a sub‐urban identity. States that success varies with the racial composition of the suburban community and the white neighbours’ level of the satisfaction with the community.

This paper takes the stance that there are two criteria for evaluation of diversity in organizations. These criteria are (a) competition with other organizations and (b) the maintenance of the organization across time. Organizations which seek diversity without considering its effects on competitive and maintenance goals place themselves at a disadvantage vis‐a‐vis their competitors. Two case examples, the Persian and Roman Empires, are used to show how different diversity management practices affect organizations. Differences between the two empires are related to the degree to which they allowed for inclusion of diverse cultural groups. The Persian Empire was exclusionary. The Roman Empire was inclusionary. Roman inclusionary practices were based on merit. Inclusion by merit is shown to lead to increased organizational effectiveness primarily in terms of increased organizational resiliency across time.

Proposes that for a business continuity strategy to be adjudged effective, it must be matched to the business′ true tolerance, be enterprise‐wide, get the basics right, develop a business continuity ownership structure, establish a plan discipline and not over‐invest. Looks at each of these points in detail.

Seeks to demonstrate how, with regard to viewing video on the internet, the delay experienced, whilst the stream is being buffered, can be virtually eradicated.

Documents a scheduled rich site summary (RSS) multimedia prototype which utilizes idle computer time (at night) to subscribe to media RSS channels in order to download audio and video content.

Finds that, a part from involving zero display, the quality of the operation is controlled only by the size of the hard disk not by the capacity of the connection.

The system documented here will serve users at either end of the RSS feed chain.

A press notice from the City of Westminster reports that a phone‐for‐the‐deaf service is being tested in Marylebone Public Library. From the Library the deaf person rings an operator at the Royal National Institute for the Deaf and, via a keyboard and VDU screen, indicates who they would like to telephone. When the call is made by the RNID operator the deaf person can speak to the distant end but replies are received by the operator, who, using a similar keyboard, types them back to the Marylebone Library. This is public provision of an already available system whereby deaf people, with a £200 keyboard adapter and their own domestic TV set, can have help from RNID in making telephone calls. It is said that deaf people much prefer this system to merely asking a friend to make the call for them because they feel they are “not bothering anyone”, the operator being somewhere else and therefore “out of sight, out of mind”. Deaf people not familiar with the equipment will receive instruction from Marylebone Library staff.