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Focuses on the effect of both proximity and size of shopping centres on surrounding residential property values, using hedonic modelling. States that the data bank consists of a subset of some 4,000 single‐detached, owner‐occupied housing units transacted all over the Quebec Urban Community territory between January 1990 and December 1991. Tests several functional forms and uses up to 60 descriptors. Reveals that in line with previous studies, findings indicate that shopping‐centre size exerts a positive contributory effect on values; they also tend to confirm the non‐monotonicity of the price‐distance function. Concludes that, in that respect, resorting to the gamma function for distance variables yields most interesting results and provides consistent estimates of optimal distances for various shopping‐centre size categories.

Considering the perceived significance of librarians and information experts as professional information seekers and information seeking educators and of the institutional setting of information work, very little is known about the information practices of librarians and information professionals, their contexts and implications for libraries and their users. The aim of this study is to explore the information interactions of library professionals within and in relation to the context of the setting of the library.

The analysis is based on a qualitative case study of a large North European city library. Material was collected using information seeking diaries, interviews and ethnographic observation in the library space.

The information practices of librarians are contextual to the setting of the library within which the meeting of the assumptions of library users, of the use of that particular system plays a significant role. The systemic interplay of librarians, library users and other parts of the system constrains the breadth of the available information at libraries, but at the same time, keeping to a particular set of shared norms and practices of library use also facilitates the use of the system.

The generalisability of the findings is limited by the fact that they are based on an individual case study.

The systemic nature of library and its reproduction in a process of structuration underlines the need to develop information services in libraries from a holistic perspective that takes into account the practical implications of the shared norms and assumptions of how a library should work.

There is little earlier research on the information practices of library and information professionals, particularly with specific reference to its implications for libraries and their users.

The case study uses a strategic foresight method, scenario-planning, to examine the strategic options for a financial services firm. As such, it covers the fields of strategy, environment of business, innovation, digital disruption and organizational change as they relate to the firm’s ability to adapt to changes in the environment of business in an emerging market context.

The case was developed with master's-level students in mind, particularly those seeking a master of business administration, masters in strategic foresight or related management degrees.

The case of NEDBANK, a longstanding and successful financial services firm based in South Africa is confronted with major challenges from competitors because of technological change in the industry as well as having to expand their market penetration across Africa. A rising regulatory burden, tough economic conditions and the need to access low income markets, provide a significant organizational development challenge as a decades-old bank, known for a relational approach to banking, has to navigate the new domains of “fintech”, micro-lending and public sector banking.

Students will gain comprehensive insight into the industry environment in emerging markets, understand the strategic management challenge before financial services firms in this environment and be able to consider the alternative strategic interventions that may be used to ensure corporate sustainability amid these challenges. Simultaneously, the case provides a comprehensive view into the use and application of scenario-planning for strategic management.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS: 11: Strategy

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the aftermath of business failure (BF) by addressing: how the individual progressed and developed new ventures, how individuals changed business behaviors and practices in light of a failure, and what was the effect of previous failure on the individual’s decisions to embark on subsequent ventures.

The authors resort to qualitative methods to understand the aftermath of BF from a retrospective point of a successful entrepreneur. Specifically, the authors undertook semi-structured interviews to six entrepreneurs, three from the north of Europe and three from the south and use interpretative phenomenological analysis.

The authors found that previous failure impacted individuals strongly, being shaped by the individual’s experience and age, and their perception of blame for the failure. An array of moderator costs was identified, ranging from antecedents to institutions that were present in the individual’s lives. The outcomes are directly relatable to the failed experience by the individual. The authors also found that the failure had a significant effect on the individual’s career path.

While predicting the failure of healthy firms or the discovery of the main determinants that lead to such an event have received increasingly more attention in the last two decades, the focus on the consequences of BF is still lagging behind. The present study fills this gap by analyzing the aftermath of BF.

Organisational Development, Organisational Behaviour, Leadership Change.

Master of Business Administration, postgraduate studies, middle or senior managers on open programmes.

The case focuses on the dilemma that Douglas Lines, Nedbank’s Divisional Executive for Strategic Business Unit, South Africa, faced when a new sense of urgency was required to cultivate a culture of collaboration in Nedbank to overcome their silo-mentality.

Examine the current and recommend the preferred culture of Nedbank to enable collaboration; critically analyse and evaluate the suitability of the current structure recommend restructuring; insight into how contextual leadership contributes to collaboration in organisations; present judgement of strategies in initiating and enhancing collaboration to overcome silo-mentality.

A DVD is available with link and password. Teaching Plan and slides are available. The four learning outcomes are posed as questions for groups to discuss and model answers are provided as well as linking them to relevant literature.

CSS 7: Management Science.

The plight of dissatisfied employees has become a recurring theme. A question often asked by management trainees is “How do I handle my difficult boss?” Hence, this paper aims to address the difficult boss problem successfully from the perspective of the subordinate.

The conceptualized legacy framework had been presented to participants and who verified its accuracy by their experiences. They could apply the framework with relative ease. Workshops, interview and online questionnaires informed the development of the framework.

The framework proposes four legacy effects on subordinates that bosses leave after interaction, namely, tense, dark, false and calm legacies. The legacies assist subordinates in classifying their bosses as either a hammer, flat battery, fire-lighter or dynamo. Once the boss is categorized, strategies to assist subordinates in handling their difficult boss flow from the framework.

While extremely useful for subordinates, bosses are limited in the use of the legacy model as it requires very high trust levels to exist. The nature of the difficult boss problem suggests that such trust does not exist.

Benefits of understanding the legacy framework has two benefits: subordinates can use the legacy tool to classify their bosses and find strategies for how to handle difficult bosses. For bosses, subordinate evaluation of their legacies presents an alternative avenue to seek feedback and improve “self-learning” through reflection.

The legacy matrix was shown to be applicable to all bosses at all levels in virtually all organizations. The value of the framework was also observed at the informal level.

Low friction polymer coatings able to withstand high loadings and many years of continuous operation are difficult to formulate at low cost, but could find many applications in industry. This study aims to analyze and compare friction and wear performance of novel polydopamine/polytetrafluoroethylene (PDA/PTFE) and traditional tin Babbitt coatings applied to an industrial journal bearing.

This paper tested PTFE based coating, co-deposited with PDA, a biopolymer allowing sea mussels to adhere to ocean rocks. This coating was deposited on flat steel substrates and on a curved cast iron hydrodynamic journal bearing surface. The flat substrates were analyzed with a tribometer and an optical microscope, while the coated bearing liners were tested in an industrial laboratory setting at different speeds and different radial loads.

PDA/PTFE coating showed 2-3 times lower friction compared to traditional tin Babbitt for flat substrates, but higher friction in the bearing liners. PDA/PTFE also showed considerable wear through coating delamination and abrasion in the bearing liners.

Five future modifications to mitigate coating flaws are provided, which include modifications to coating thickness and its surface finish.

While the novel coating showed excellent results on flat substrates, coating performance in a large scale bearing was found to be poor. This study shows that coating preparation needs to be improved to avoid frictional losses and unwanted damage to bearings. We provide several routes that could improve coating performance in industrial applications.

This study aims to investigate the potential of using polymer multi-material additive manufacturing (MMAM) to produce miniature hydraulic piston actuators combining rigid structures and flexible seals. Such actuators offer great potential for medical robots in X-ray and magnetic resonance environments, where conventional piston actuators cannot be used because of safety issues caused by metal components.

Hydraulic pistons with two different integrated flexible seal shapes are designed and manufactured using MMAM. Design 1 features a ring-shaped seal made from a flexible material that is printed on the surface of the rigid piston shaft. Design 2 appears identical from the outside, yet an axial opening in the piston shaft is added to enable self-reinforced sealing as fluid pressure increases. For both designs, samples with three different outer diameters are fabricated leading to a total of six different piston versions. The pistons are then evaluated regarding leakage, friction and durability.

Measurement results show that the friction force for Design 2 is lower than that of Design 1, making Design 2 more suitable for the intended application. None of the versions of Design 2 shows leakage for pressures up to 1.5 MPa. For Design 1, leak-tightness varies with the outer diameter, yet none of the versions is consistently leak-tight at 1.5 MPa. Furthermore, the results show that prolonged exposure to water decreases the durability of the flexible material significantly. The durability the authors observe may, however, be sufficient for short-term or single-use devices.

The authors investigate a novel design approach for hydraulic piston actuators based on MMAM. These actuators are of particular interest for patient-specific medical devices used in radiological interventions, where metal-free components are required to safely operate in X-ray and magnetic resonance environments. This study may serve as a basis for the development of new actuators, as it shows a feasible solution, yet pointing out critical aspects such as the influence of small geometry changes or material performance changes caused by water absorption.

Today, more than ever, businesses need to improve strategy implementation. Part of achieving implementation requires strategies to be embedded in the daily activities of executors (practitioners) – thus to embed strategy in implementation. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a “lesser acknowledged” strategy type that is ill-considered by management and leadership alike. “Covert tactics” are described.

Through dialectic conversation and applying the devil’s advocacy approach to challenging embeddedness and implementation liabilities, the phenomenon of “covert tactics” was identified. Purposively selected subjects participated in the dialectic conversations. Their opinions were collected and patterns identified until their “tactics” became apparent. Another element of interest was the underlying thinking of subjects to understand what drives them to follow covert tactics.

Covert tactics are phantasmal individual ploys that employees take in response to their own micro situation. Higher-level managers are often not aware of their existence, as these tactics are not spoken about but do exist. Such managers assume the organisation’s professed strategies are pursued but are oblivious to the “real tactics” that are pursued.

The research proposes an “invisible concept” and depends on one individual view point.

Understanding and accepting the existence of covert tactics gives managers flexibility to respond.

To address their existence, there is no need to expose and oppose covert tactics, as this will make them more “invisible”. The innovative approach is to recognise their existence and align them to the organisation strategy. The quality of the strategy message was shown to be the fundamental tool that managers can use to address covert tactics by replacing the need for their existence.

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the impact of adopting the principles of corporate governance on the financial performance of companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE). To assess the implementation of corporate governance principles, the authors built an index based on the principles specified in the BSE Corporate Governance Code (CGC).

An econometric analysis was conducted to estimate the impact that the authors’ corporate governance indicator had on financial performance, measured successively through Tobin's Q, return on equity (ROE), economic value added (EVA) and total shareholder return (TSR).

Following the regression model, the authors noticed the absence of a significant impact of corporate governance practices on performance measured by ROE, EVA and TSR but instead, a significant and positive relationship for Tobin's Q rate was found.

Due to the lack of data before the implementation of the BSE Code of Corporate Governance, the research period is limited to 2010–2015, but the authors’ future studies will try to extend the research period.

Although numerous studies have been conducted to analyze the empirical relationship between corporate governance and financial performance, no conclusive results have been obtained. The diversity of these findings can refer to methods used in the construction of a corporate governance measure as well as to the accuracy of financial reporting.