Search results

In the construction industry, it has proven difficult to implement and realize innovation efforts, for example in the development of industrialized construction and use of platform concepts. Thus, the purpose of this study is to characterize the innovation diffusion process in the social system of a large Swedish contractor company. Specifically, the diffusion of three innovative industrialized house-building (IHB) platforms and factors affecting their adoption and implementation (particularly effects of their perceived radicality in relation to the company’s decentralized characteristics) are identified and discussed.

A case study approach was applied, using empirical material including semi-structured interviews and archival records (research reports from earlier studies at different points in time related to each innovation and annual corporate reports). The material was analyzed using Rogers’ (2003) five-stage innovation process model, acknowledging the importance of social systems’ structures.

Structural characteristics of the social system strongly affect innovation diffusion. In subsystems that had not been involved in initiation of the innovations, they were regarded as radical, which hindered their adoption and implementation.

This study builds upon the recent findings that successful innovation implementation depends on a range of contingencies in the construction context. Although the diffusion of the innovations per se has been traced over a ten-year period, generalizability is limited because the results come from one construction company.

Contractors have invested substantially in the development of industrialized construction and use of platform concepts, but less in their implementation, so they have obtained little gain. How innovations are perceived and implemented in different subsystems affects the success of their implementation in the overarching social system.

This study adheres to previous calls for more research on firm level in the complex social system of construction companies by adopting a ten-year perspective on the diffusion of innovation at a large contractor addressing in particular the impact of the innovations perceived radicality in relation to the decentralized characteristics of the company.

Integrated reporting (IR) aims to improve the quality of information available to capital providers. While IR is associated with decreases in investor uncertainty and increases in firm value, it is unclear how IR information directly influences investment decisions. This paper aims to investigate the investment considerations of Taiwanese investors and their initial impressions of the International Integrated Reporting Framework (IIRC Framework). In doing so, this study examines the relationships between investment considerations and the IIRC Framework’s concepts.

Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 16 investors in Taiwan. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data collected.

In addition to economic and financial outlook, competitive advantages and ownership structure, Taiwanese investors emphasise management credibility as an important factor that influences investment decisions. Investors are reliant on private information sources and quantitative data. Sustainability disclosures and sustainability performance beyond legal requirements are often not considered. Taiwanese investors lack awareness of the IIRC Framework and are sceptical about the premise that integrated reports can provide information material to investment appraisal. The assertion that integrated reports reduce information asymmetry and influence investment decisions has to be treated with caution.

Self-selection bias and a potential lack of transferability in the findings are issues inherent in the research method and sample used.

IR information needs to be frequently updated rather than disclosed in a periodic report. Furthermore, integrated reports need to demonstrate a direct link between non-financial performance and financial value creation.

Mandating the supply of integrated reports is unlikely to influence investors’ capital allocation decisions unless investor demand is a driver of the regulation.

This study is one of the few to investigate IR from the investor’s perspective. Observations from this preliminary study warrant further investigations into the relevance of IR to investment communities globally.

Drawing on an accountability framework developed for social enterprise organizations (SEOs), this paper examines the annual report disclosure practices of SEOs in the United Kingdom in order to investigate the types of accountability disclosed by SEOs.

After developing a SEO database, and utilizing a bespoke document coding checklist, the annual reports of 129 SEOs were examined.

The results indicate that while SEOs would be expected to account in line with normative stakeholder theory, many do not provide constructive and voluntary accountability information to their stakeholders, at least through the annual report, and that their focus is on satisfying legal obligations.

In response to calls for research to better understand accountability in new organizational contexts, this paper makes two contributions: firstly, by extending prior accountability research in the NFP sector to consider organizational hybrids, it raises questions about organizational accountability and how it is discharged in situations where an organization operates as a business and yet is accountable for its social mission; secondly, assuming these organizations are driven by their business and social logics, the findings suggest that SEO accountability disclosure practices are inconsistent with the social objectives on which they are based.

A series of projects is reported which focus on various aspects of white‐collar trade unionism, and which had to confront the theoretical limitations of some of the conventional ways of studying white‐collar trade unions.

The purpose of this paper is to validate a shortened measure of consumers’ satisfaction with the service quality at sporting events. The scale's ability to predict both customer satisfaction and future behavioral intentions is also measured.

The measure, entitled Eventserv‐Short, was tested across the five most popular American sports and across two levels (collegiate and professional). An online survey was utilized with a total of 854 respondents.

Results showed that Eventserv‐Short is a reliable and valid measure of satisfaction with service quality that is invariant across various sporting events; also, Eventserv‐Short predicts overall customer satisfaction and future behavioral intentions.

The paper's importance is demonstrated by the measure's consistent performance across the different types of sports and settings. Further, these results show that researchers and managers can now more quickly, reliably, and accurately measure consumers’ satisfaction with the service quality they perceive while attending sporting events.

This chapter discusses the power of trade unions within the UK civil aviation industry, focusing specifically on the British Air Line Pilots’ Association (BALPA) that represents flight crew. The deleterious effects of the contemporary legislative and competitive environment of air transportation on the ability of BALPA to exact concessions from airline management are discussed as are the changes to the nature of work of flight crew that impact on the structural dimensions from which BALPA derives its power. These are weighed against the associational dimension of BALPA's power base, in particular the willingness of pilots to engage in active militancy. The chapter also considers possible organizing strategies for BALPA in order to challenge managerial prerogative in the industry.

There is evidence of discontent with contemporary university education generally, and accounting education in particular. This paper examines some reasons for the discontent and suggests one way to address it, namely dialectic enquiry. The process of contradiction and reconciliation is at the heart of dialectic enquiry. From two opposing positions, dialectic enquiry requires a third position, or synthesis, to emerge which allows the participants to progress their exploration of an issue. The authors describe the introduction of dialectical enquiry in a university accounting course and discuss the potential learning improvements it can offer. The authors hope this paper will encourage others to introduce dialectical enquiry into their classrooms and report their findings.

This chapter focuses on gender, sexuality and security in post-Apartheid South Africa.

The methodology includes secondary analysis of policy and research with the aim of highlighting and assessing the position of gender, sex and security in post-Apartheid South Africa. Feminist theory and intersectionality are used to discuss issues of sexuality, security, construction of gender relationships and experiences of being a woman in South Africa. The normalisation of violence against women is challenged.

The social implications of this research are that it challenges normalisation of gendered violence, questions gendercide and produces knowledge of a gendered social reality of living in South Africa. Women who consider assault a regular feature of their sexual relationships have been brought into a discourse which includes the liberalisation of sexual expression, claims to new sexual rights and aspirations to power and status through sexual relationships (Posel, 2005a).

Throughout the chapter the achievement of gender equality is problematised and questioned. However, gender and the relationship between power and sex remain at the centre of the inquiry, particularly with reference to the increasing culture of violence and men as the perpetrators of violence against women.

According to Posel ‘one of the most striking features of the post-apartheid era has been the politicization of sexuality’ (2005a, p. 125) and this chapter demonstrates that a response to the violation of the Women’s Charter of Effective Equality, passed in 2000, is a priority as women and families are disproportionately affected by violence in multiple ways.

This article is concerned with a description of the way in which a small group of Civil Service trade unionists attempted to participate in the 1981 pay campaign by the British Civil Service trade unions. The problems faced by the group are analysed and the group members' experiences of their activity explored.