Search results

1 – 10 of over 26000
Open Access
Article
Publication date: 8 February 2021

Lars-Erik Gadde

The purpose of this paper is to examine the transformation of the perspective applied to distribution structures in the late 1900s. This change implied that the previous focus on…

2728

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the transformation of the perspective applied to distribution structures in the late 1900s. This change implied that the previous focus on channel management by a channel captain was abandoned because of changes in the business reality. This perspective was replaced by models and concepts featuring collaboration and joint coordination between actors and relationships embedded in networks.

Design/methodology/approach

Changes of perspectives on phenomena are assumed to occur through the dynamic interplay between business reality, the conceptualisation of this reality and the managerial recommendations derived from this conceptualisation. The study is based on a thorough longitudinal literature review.

Findings

Shifts of perspectives occur when there is an increasing mismatch between the current business reality and mainstream conceptualisations. In this transformation, new constructs are required to illustrate new aspects of the business reality, exemplified in the study by interaction and networks. Some established concepts lose their significance, illustrated by the channel captain. Others may be re-interpreted, as is the case with the power concept. The study also shows that “forgotten” conceptualisations can be re-wakened, exemplified by the view of distribution structures as network constellations. In turn, these changes in the conceptualisation of distribution impact the managerial recommendations.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, there are no previous studies analysing how the perspective on a certain phenomenon changes through the dynamic interplay between business reality, conceptualisations and managerial recommendations.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 36 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 May 2011

J.R. Brent Ritchie, Vincent Wing Sun Tung and Robin J.B. Ritchie

The essence of tourism is the development and delivery of travel and visitation experiences. This paper aims to provide a quantitative and qualitative assessment of articles in…

12144

Abstract

Purpose

The essence of tourism is the development and delivery of travel and visitation experiences. This paper aims to provide a quantitative and qualitative assessment of articles in major tourism journals in order to enhance our understanding of the tourism experience, with a special emphasis on the management issues associated with delivering these experiences to destination visitors.

Design/methodology/approach

Several leading tourism journals were evaluated to identify the articles that focused on tourism experiences. Content analysis was used to determine the quantitative extent of the contributions and the qualitative nature of the articles published in each journal.

Findings

Despite growth in the total number of articles published by each major journal, there was no substantial increase in experience-related papers. The findings suggest that, despite its fundamental importance, experience-related research remains under-represented in the tourism literature.

Research limitations/implications

While this paper focused on the “leading” tourism journals as defined by various studies in the past, other journals and other publications that target a specific niche readership may also have worthwhile contributions to the understanding of tourism experiences and related management issues. Future research should seek to accommodate this in an effort to acknowledge a more comprehensive list of journals and books.

Originality/value

This is the first formal study to date that comprehensively addresses the contributions of leading tourism journals to the literature on tourism experiences. Understanding the nature of tourism experiences is of significant value to scholars and practitioners, since providing tourists with high-quality, memorable experiences constitutes the essence of tourism and tourism management.

Details

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 23 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-6119

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 February 2020

Rod Sheaff, Verdiana Morando, Naomi Chambers, Mark Exworthy, Ann Mahon, Richard Byng and Russell Mannion

Attempts to transform health systems have in many countries involved starting to pay healthcare providers through a DRG system, but that has involved managerial workarounds…

2298

Abstract

Purpose

Attempts to transform health systems have in many countries involved starting to pay healthcare providers through a DRG system, but that has involved managerial workarounds. Managerial workarounds have seldom been analysed. This paper does so by extending and modifying existing knowledge of the causes and character of clinical and IT workarounds, to produce a conceptualisation of the managerial workaround. It further develops and revises this conceptualisation by comparing the practical management, at both provider and purchaser levels, of hospital DRG payment systems in England, Germany and Italy.

Design/methodology/approach

We make a qualitative test of our initial assumptions about the antecedents, character and consequences of managerial workarounds by comparing them with a systematic comparison of case studies of the DRG hospital payment systems in England, Germany and Italy. The data collection through key informant interviews (N = 154), analysis of policy documents (N = 111) and an action learning set, began in 2010–12, with additional data collection from key informants and administrative documents continuing in 2018–19 to supplement and update our findings.

Findings

Managers in all three countries developed very similar workarounds to contain healthcare costs to payers. To weaken DRG incentives to increase hospital activity, managers agreed to lower DRG payments for episodes of care above an agreed case-load ‘ceiling' and reduced payments by less than the full DRG amounts when activity fell below an agreed ‘floor' volume.

Research limitations/implications

Empirically this study is limited to three OECD health systems, but since our findings come from both Bismarckian (social-insurance) and Beveridge (tax-financed) systems, they are likely to be more widely applicable. In many countries, DRGs coexist with non-DRG or pre-DRG systems, so these findings may also reflect a specific, perhaps transient, stage in DRG-system development. Probably there are also other kinds of managerial workaround, yet to be researched. Doing so would doubtlessly refine and nuance the conceptualisation of the ‘managerial workaround’ still further.

Practical implications

In the case of DRGs, the managerial workarounds were instances of ‘constructive deviance' which enabled payers to reduce the adverse financial consequences, for them, arising from DRG incentives. The understanding of apparent failures or part-failures to transform a health system can be made more nuanced, balanced and diagnostic by using the concept of the ‘managerial workaround'.

Social implications

Managerial workarounds also appear outside the health sector, so the present analysis of managerial workarounds may also have application to understanding attempts to transform such sectors as education, social care and environmental protection.

Originality/value

So far as we are aware, no other study presents and tests the concept of a ‘managerial workaround'. Pervasive, non-trivial managerial workarounds may be symptoms of mismatched policy objectives, or that existing health system structures cannot realise current policy objectives; but the workarounds themselves may also contain solutions to these problems.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 34 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 September 2021

William S. Carrell, Andrea D. Ellinger, Kim F. Nimon and Sewon Kim

The purpose of this study was to apply social exchange and organizational support theories to examine the relationship between mid-level strategic enrollment managers’ perceptions…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to apply social exchange and organizational support theories to examine the relationship between mid-level strategic enrollment managers’ perceptions of managerial coaching behaviors enacted by their senior managers and their own reported job engagement, as mediated by perceived organizational support (POS) within the US higher education context.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative survey-based half-longitudinal design, which used the latent marker variable technique, was conducted with a sponsoring professional organization in the strategic enrollment management (SEM) field in the USA. A total of 301 usable surveys were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results of this study indicate that SEM managers’ job engagement and the perceived managerial coaching behaviors provided to them by their senior managers were positively correlated, and that POS fully mediated this relationship. These findings highlight how coaching behaviors may allow managers to elicit positive emotional responses and, by fostering enhanced POS, ultimately enhance job engagement among their team members.

Originality/value

This study addresses several calls for research on managerial coaching, job engagement and POS in an under-examined higher education context within the human resource development field.

Article
Publication date: 29 July 2014

Bengt Gustavsson and Lars-Johan Åge

This study aims to formulate recommendations for business-to-business (B2B) researchers, with the potential to increase the extent to which B2B research is relevant to managers…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to formulate recommendations for business-to-business (B2B) researchers, with the potential to increase the extent to which B2B research is relevant to managers.

Design/methodology/approach

These recommendations are derived from and inspired by the grounded theory methodology.

Findings

In this article, we argue that conceptualizations which are potentially relevant to managers are those that discover new perspectives, simplify complexity, enable managers to take action and have an instant grab. To accomplish this as researchers, the authors emphasize fostering a beginner’s mind, creating umbrella models, increasing the level of abstraction of concepts and finding the core process in data.

Originality/value

In this article, we translate the basic principles within the grounded theory methodology into more general recommendations that can be used by B2B researchers.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 29 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 June 2018

Maria Ivanova-Gongne and Lasse Torkkeli

This paper aims to investigate the role of culture in managerial sensemaking and conceptualization of business networking.

1047

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the role of culture in managerial sensemaking and conceptualization of business networking.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors apply qualitative methodology through the sensemaking approach on three Finnish and three Russian managers in mutual buyer–supplier business relationship dyads.

Findings

The results imply that the cultural background of the manager determines his perception of the level at which business networking occurs. Finnish managers conceptualize business networking as an organizational strategy, whereas their Russian counterparts conceptualize the phenomenon squarely at the individual level.

Research limitations/implications

The authors suggest that the underlying cause of the differences in the conceptualization of networking may be that Finnish business networking relies more on concepts derived from Western European business culture, whereas Russian networking relies more on the traditional culture. Consequently, they suggest that the concept of business networking in extant research may suffer from ethnocentricity. Limitations of the study include the limited extent of generalizations from its qualitative nature.

Practical implications

The results imply that business network relationships should be managed differently in different cultures, and that depending on the cultural background of the business partner, managing both the organizational and the individual levels of business networking is needed.

Originality/value

The study contributes to limited literature on culture and the role of individuals in managerial conceptualization of business networking. This is one of the rare studies to illustrate differences through individual sensemaking on both sides of the relationship dyad and account for both Western European and Russian market environments.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 33 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 7 March 2022

Corin Kraft, Johan P. Lindeque and Marc K. Peter

The study explores the alignment of Swiss small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers' understanding of digital transformation, with evidence of digital tool adoption in…

8452

Abstract

Purpose

The study explores the alignment of Swiss small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers' understanding of digital transformation, with evidence of digital tool adoption in managerial and operative work. This reveals opportunities for more fully realizing the potential of digital transformation for SMEs.

Design/methodology/approach

This multiple-case study, with four theoretically sampled cases, analyzes data from the qualitative answers of 1,593 respondents to a survey of Swiss SMEs about digital transformation. The study draws on a convenience sample of Swiss SME managers.

Findings

The analysis shows little understanding of digital transformation as related to managerial work. However, there are two clear digital tool adoption patterns for managerial work: (1) workflow and workforce management and (2) work-flow and team management. Understandings of digital transformation and operative work focus on the (1) organization of operational work or (2) a combination of organization and changing the way people work. The digital tool adoption in operational work additionally focuses on the digital skills of operational employees.

Research limitations/implications

The study is only able to identify patters of understanding of digital transformation and digital tool adoption in managerial and operative work. More research is needed to understand why these patterns are observed.

Practical implications

SME managers need to think far more carefully about aligning their vision for digital transformation and the digital tools they adopt in both managerial and operational work, but especially in managerial work.

Originality/value

This is the first empirical study of the digital transformation of Swiss SMEs and their digital tool adoption. Significant potential for alignment is revealed, suggesting potential performance gains are possible.

Details

Journal of Strategy and Management, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-425X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 November 2014

Andrews Agya Yalley and Harjit Singh Sekhon

The purpose of this paper is to differentiate the production process within services from the dominant manufacturing-based production process, with the objective of delineating…

2984

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to differentiate the production process within services from the dominant manufacturing-based production process, with the objective of delineating the production process in services and highlighting its implication for service productivity.

Design/methodology/approach

This study critically reviewed the extant literature on the production processes in manufacturing and services from a multidisciplinary perspective and proposed a framework for the service production process and its relationship with service productivity.

Findings

The production process for services differs from the dominant manufacturing-based production process and entails an input, transformation process and outcome dimensions. Therefore, any advancement in services, particularly the conceptualisation and measurement of service productivity, is dependent on the application of a service-specific production process.

Research limitations/implications

The understanding and delineation of the production process in services would further scholarly understanding of what is means to be productive in services and the impact on the validity of the conceptualisation and measurement of service productivity and other service-related concepts.

Practical implications

The proposed service-based production process can further managerial understanding of the measurement and management of productivity in services.

Originality/value

This paper delineates the production process in services and highlighted its implication for service productivity. This study, therefore, is a step forward in developing service-specific concepts and measures, particularly service productivity.

Details

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. 63 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0401

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 27 July 2012

James K. Summers, Timothy P. Munyon, Annette L. Ranft, Gerald R. Ferris and M. Ronald Buckley

Executives exert a pervasive influence on the organizations they lead. As such, scholars have long considered how to calibrate the risks inherent in executive decision making…

Abstract

Executives exert a pervasive influence on the organizations they lead. As such, scholars have long considered how to calibrate the risks inherent in executive decision making, often relying on incentives and compensation to calibrate executive risk behavior. However, there are shortcomings that reduce the efficacy of this approach, largely because incentives and compensation do not alter the work environment itself, which play a significant role influencing executive risk behavior. Consequently, in this chapter, we propose a conceptualization that integrates executive risk-taking with work design, framing three central features of the strategic leader job and work environment that may be manipulated to channel and shape executive risk-taking. Specifically, accountability, discretion, and relationships are proposed as the key higher-order characteristics of the executive work context, and they are examined with respect to optimal calibration in order to maximize both executive performance and well-being, as well as organizational coordination and control. Implications of this conceptualization and directions for future research are discussed.

Details

Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-172-4

Book part
Publication date: 8 April 2005

Ricardo Madureira

This paper illuminates the distinction between individual and organizational actors in business-to-business markets as well as the coexistence of formal and informal mechanisms of…

Abstract

This paper illuminates the distinction between individual and organizational actors in business-to-business markets as well as the coexistence of formal and informal mechanisms of coordination in multinational corporations. The main questions addressed include the following. (1) What factors influence the occurrence of personal contacts of foreign subsidiary managers in industrial multinational corporations? (2) How such personal contacts enable coordination in industrial markets and within multinational firms? The theoretical context of the paper is based on: (1) the interaction approach to industrial markets, (2) the network approach to industrial markets, and (3) the process approach to multinational management. The unit of analysis is the foreign subsidiary manager as the focal actor of a contact network. The paper is empirically focused on Portuguese sales subsidiaries of Finnish multinational corporations, which are managed by either a parent country national (Finnish), a host country national (Portuguese) or a third country national. The paper suggests eight scenarios of individual dependence and uncertainty, which are determined by individual, organizational, and/or market factors. Such scenarios are, in turn, thought to require personal contacts with specific functions. The paper suggests eight interpersonal roles of foreign subsidiary managers, by which the functions of their personal contacts enable inter-firm coordination in industrial markets. In addition, the paper suggests eight propositions on how the functions of their personal contacts enable centralization, formalization, socialization and horizontal communication in multinational corporations.

Details

Managing Product Innovation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-311-2

1 – 10 of over 26000