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1 – 10 of over 13000Nearly four years ago, the Aslib Engineering Group wanted to get acquainted with the intricacies of the report literature and some of the problems associated with it. The paper…
Abstract
Nearly four years ago, the Aslib Engineering Group wanted to get acquainted with the intricacies of the report literature and some of the problems associated with it. The paper which was presented at their ‘Facets of Engineering Librarianship’ conference in 1970 needs some updating and this is the purpose of the article which follows.
When I was first approached to give this talk I was faced with an immediate dilemma. How does one define reports and worse still how can one define a microfiche report? It can be…
Abstract
When I was first approached to give this talk I was faced with an immediate dilemma. How does one define reports and worse still how can one define a microfiche report? It can be said that as a general rule reports have an alpha‐numeric identification code, but this will convey different ideas to different people. Many experts tend to agree that you cannot define a report, but if you see one you can generally recognize it as such. This is probably true as far as full size reports are concerned, but is far more complicated if one has only the micro‐images of a microfiche to go by. It is true that generally there is an eye‐readable title line, incorporating an alpha‐numeric code, but this as a rule will not be sufficient to distinguish a report from a conference paper, from a translation, a patent, or in some cases, even from journal articles. For this reason alone, the parameters of report literature will vary according to individual interpretations.
Mª Pilar Alonso Lifante, Celia Chaín Navarro and Francisco José González González
– The purpose of this paper is to show that some important astronomical information is still not taken into account in the documental description of historical star catalogues.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show that some important astronomical information is still not taken into account in the documental description of historical star catalogues.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 28 historical star catalogues (eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries) from the Royal Institute and Observatory of the Spanish Navy was selected in order to analyse their structure and to identify information patterns.
Findings
The analysis shows that there are a number of technical parameters which are not present in the cataloguing standards and which should be taken into account in the bibliographic descriptions of these specialised documents since they are of great interest to astronomers and astrophysicists. On the other hand, star catalogues provide some cartographic information which can be described by these standards but whose corresponding fields are not widely used by cataloguers.
Originality/value
A proposal of new technical parameters is given in order to try to improve the bibliographic records of these astronomical resources. Some directions are also given in order to identify the sections of the catalogues where these parameters may be found, making the task of locating them easier.
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Xinlu Qiu, Marcelo Cano-Kollmann and Ram Mudambi
The purpose of this paper is to explore how firms achieve competitiveness by implementing design-driven innovation.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how firms achieve competitiveness by implementing design-driven innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a detailed longitudinal analysis of the design innovation underpinning the Norwegian furniture industry. Using a data set spanning 40 years (1976-2015) of design patents by both Norwegian firms and inventors, the authors map the coinventor connectivity of the design-innovation clusters of Norway, both within the country and with foreign locations.
Findings
Using network analysis, the authors find that most of the rise of co-inventor connectivity within Norwegian furniture industry’s design innovation is occurring within the country. More surprisingly, the leading firms and star inventors are less likely to collaborate internationally, i.e. they are characterized by greater innovative “lock-in”.
Research limitations/implications
The exploration of all the potential reasons for the “lock-in” in design innovation of the Norwegian furniture industry is beyond the scope of this paper. A particularly interesting avenue for future research would be to compare the coinventor connectivity of traditional sectors like furniture with more high technology sectors within Norway.
Originality/value
By assessing a detailed and historical context of the evolution of Norwegian furniture industry, the paper provides a fairly comprehensive study of design innovation as a source of firms’ competitiveness, which has been rarely explored. The authors suggest that innovative “lock-in” may be more likely to arise in the traditional sectors of an economy and the forces may be particularly strong for those firms and individuals that have the highest domestic connectedness and status.
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This paper aims to substantiate the mechanism through which corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects financial performance (FP). Specifically, this paper focuses on the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to substantiate the mechanism through which corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects financial performance (FP). Specifically, this paper focuses on the moderating effect of visibility and mediating effect of reputation in the relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper investigates 175 Korean firms from 2010 to 2012 that have been listed in the Korean Economic Justice Index for all three years. The hypotheses are tested using various measures of visibility and the Korea’s Most Admired Company index as proxy for reputation. The logistics regression and the ordinary least square are used.
Findings
This paper initially demonstrates that the visibility moderates the correlation between CSR and reputation. On this finding, it further proves that CSR has positive effect on the long-run FP, measured in the Tobin’s Q, both directly and indirectly through reputation. However, the influence is irrelevant in the short run. In sum, visibility moderates the correlation between CSR and reputation, which mediates the CSR-FP relationship in the long run.
Practical implications
This paper argues for the importance of visibility in practicing CSR, especially when reputation building and financial benefit is sought through CSR.
Originality/value
Despite its strategic importance, the visibility of CSR has not been sufficiently studied. Moreover, as scholars have recently suggested that the CSR–FP relationship is rather indirect, there is even more significance in investigating the moderating and mediating variable. Hence, with the intuitive results, this paper lays an integral foundation in the literature.
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Hendrik Jacobus Haasbroek, Geoff Bick and Stephanie Giamporcaro
The case can be used in the subject areas of finance and in particular investments, corporate governance, ESG, or responsible investments. It is suitable for students from all…
Abstract
Subject area of the teaching case:
The case can be used in the subject areas of finance and in particular investments, corporate governance, ESG, or responsible investments. It is suitable for students from all financial backgrounds, from a novice in the financial markets to an expert in finance. It is, however, expected that the class should have a sound fundamental grounding in financial analysis and valuations. The purpose of this case is to prepare students for future investments they would make in whatever capacity – whether in private or listed companies – and to prepare them for future roles on boards of directors. The examples of real-life events in this case study are used to prepare students for future similar situations in which they might find themselves.
Student level:
This teaching case is aimed at postgraduate students pursuing an MBA or a specialist Masters in a finance programme. This case can be used as a master class in corporate governance, investments, or responsible investments. This case is also suited for an executive education class in management. It is particularly relevant to a module that focusses on investments, corporate governance, ESG, or responsible investments.
Brief overview of the teaching case:
The case study chronicles meetings held on 8 November 2017 at a fictional South African asset manager, Active Investment Management (AIM). These meetings discuss the firm's investment in JSE-listed Steinhoff International Holdings. The case deals with the questions that active fund managers need to address when balancing financial analysis; environmental, social, and governance (ESG) analysis; portfolio management; and the need to comply with their fiduciary duty to clients. It also looks at the need for responsible investing in decision-making.
Expected learning outcomes:
The understanding of the assessment around the complexities of asset management when it comes to responsible investment.
To determine why institutional investors should apply responsible investment principles when making investment decisions.
An understanding of the evaluation of the unique roles of the three pillars of corporate governance, namely asset managers, auditors, and the board of directors.
The ability to assess how to integrate financial analysis and ESG principles in making investment recommendations.
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Muhammad Latif Khan, Rohani Salleh, Amjad Shamim and Mohamad Abdullah Hemdi
This paper aims to investigate the role-play of Protean Career Attitude (PCA) and Career Success (CS) in Affective Organizational Commitment (AOC).
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the role-play of Protean Career Attitude (PCA) and Career Success (CS) in Affective Organizational Commitment (AOC).
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional study on 376 employees from 55 hotels in Malaysia were conducted. The co-variance-based structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the data to test the direct and indirect relationships of PCA and CS with AOC.
Findings
The findings reveal that self-directed career attitude (SDCA) has a positive direct influence on AOC as well as indirect influence through the mediation of OCS and SCS. However, the value-driven career attitude (VDCA) neither influences AOC nor the OCS.
Originality/value
This is a first paper to body of knowledge in Asian context which identify mediating role of career success (SCA and OCS) to PCA and AOC. The findings of this research are the workplace learning in hospitality management. The authors argue that hotels should not assume spontaneously PCA with diminishing AOC, but rather hotels' attention is required to identify the most important preferences of these butterfly career attitudes such as OCS and SCS. Most importantly the research negates many negative labels of PCA and adds new perception to the contemporary career literature. Higher education institutions, government, and primary, secondary, and post-secondary education departments can play a significant role in developing PCA dispositions like SDCA and VDCA toward career success. Therefore, further study should examine PCA and their relevance to career outcome like job searching and employability of students in Malaysia. The paper is the first, to one's knowledge, to assess organizational commitment with specific measures of PCA. While the results are simple, they refute many stereotypes of the new career and, in that sense, add an important perspective to the career literature.
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Xue Yang, Luying Zhao, Yanli Yang and Chang Li
This study aims to complement existing studies by investigating the impact of different corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosed by peer listed stars (i.e…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to complement existing studies by investigating the impact of different corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosed by peer listed stars (i.e. governance information [GI] and output information [OI]) on focal firms’ responsive CSR (RCSR) and strategic CSR (SCSR) practices. The authors also investigate the influence of different boundary conditions (i.e. founders’ social status [SS] and industry pollution intensity).
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the listed stars of 16 industries and their 4,096 private peers in China, the authors use the least squares method and logistic regression models to analyze the data set.
Findings
The results indicate that the GI of peer listed stars can only positively affect firms’ RCSR behavior. The OI of peer listed stars has a positive effect on firms’ SCSR behavior while negatively affecting firms’ RCSR behavior. The SS of focal firms’ founders and their interaction with the industry’s pollution level strengthen the abovementioned positive relationships while weakening the negative ones.
Practical implications
This study provides insights into the role of listed stars in influencing peer firms’ CSR activities, offering important practical implications for both policymakers and managers.
Originality/value
This study extends the recent discussion on peer effects of CSR by elucidating the peer star effect on CSR and confirms that firms may adopt heterogeneous CSR practices to achieve sustainable growth by investigating peer firms’ different responses to their listed stars’ different CSR information. Moreover, by introducing the SS of founders and the pollution intensity of the industry as boundary conditions, this study enriches the research context on CSR activities.
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Francesca Culasso, Elisa Giacosa, Laura Broccardo and Luca Maria Manzi
The purpose of this study is to underscore the impact of the family variable on performance. The authors were interested in understanding whether the differences between Family…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to underscore the impact of the family variable on performance. The authors were interested in understanding whether the differences between Family Firms (FFs) and Non-Family Firms (NFFs), on the one hand, and between large FFs and medium-sized FFs, on the other, were reflected in the performance achieved.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper a sample of 80 industrial companies listed on the Italian Stock Market (FTSE MIB and STAR indexes) were considered, and mixed criteria to distinguish FFs and NFFs (Smyrnios-Romano et al., 1998) were used. The empirical method allowed the development of some research hypotheses by exploiting the Pearson correlation.
Findings
There are two main categories of FFs, which correspond to two different strategic and organizational categories, namely, the FFs listed on the large capitalized companies index (FTSE MIB) and the FFs listed on the medium-capitalized companies index (STAR). Each kind of FFs (large FFs and medium-sized FFs) has a specific effect on profitability and financial performance. Specifically, if a company is medium sized, family presence is a relevant variable in achieving better profitability and financial performance than NFFs of the same size; on the other hand, if the company expands to become a large one, the family presence is an irrelevant variable in terms of both profitability and financial leverage (debt ratio).
Research limitations/implications
Limitations of the study concern the definition of the sample, as this paper focused on the industrial sector and the method adopted, as it could be integrated with some econometrical models. The implications of this paper are relevant for families and regulatory bodies because it helps them better understand the effects of governance and company size both on short- and long-term performance. Moreover, the findings of the study can influence the decision-making process of investors to identify the long-term outperformers listed on the Italian Stock Exchange.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on FFs by defining two different categories of FFs, namely, large and medium-sized. It seems that larger companies record a weaker family influence on short-term profitability.
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Peng Xiaobao and Jian Wu
This study aims to comprehensively investigate the relationship between government subsidies and innovation performance in Chinese enterprises listed on the SSE STAR Market.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to comprehensively investigate the relationship between government subsidies and innovation performance in Chinese enterprises listed on the SSE STAR Market.
Design/methodology/approach
An unbalanced sample, covering 285 observations in 215 enterprises listed on the SSE STAR Market from 2019 to 2020, was used to explore the relationships between government subsidies, R&D investment, CEO shareholding and innovation performance. Counterfactual analysis is added for robustness testing.
Findings
Empirical evidence confirms that government subsidies have an inverted U-shaped relationship with R&D investment and innovation performance. Meanwhile, R&D investment is a mediating variable between government subsidies and innovation performance. Moreover, CEO shareholding plays a moderating role between government subsidies and R&D investment. The higher the CEO ownership, the steeper the inverted U-shaped relationship.
Practical implications
The government should introduce a dynamic mechanism to reasonably control subsidy amounts and strengthen the supervision of subsidy use. Enterprise managers should be aware of how incentives affect the firm’s innovation and implement a coordinated development of government subsidy policies and internal enterprise governance.
Originality/value
This study adds new empirical evidence for the relationship between government subsidies and enterprise innovation performance. The risk incentive provided by stock options is an important micro mechanism to compensate for the lack of government subsidies. The study identifies ways to promote firm innovation based on the synergistic effect of internal and external mechanisms.
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